“What? Harry, are you feeling ok?” Hermione asked as she stood up and tried to check the Gryffindor’s forehead to feel for fever, but he dodged the attempt.

“Yes, I’m ok. I haven’t said anything yet because I was too busy being yelled at and punched in the face. I…talked to Dumbledore.”

The blank stares all around the library frustrated Harry even more than he was before, and he considered letting them find it out on their own. He realized how stupid that was, as they were trying to help him. He couldn’t wait until this was all done and over with.

“You talked to Dumbledore? How?” Remus asked, pulling a chair out for Harry beside him. He knew how frustrated Harry was with everyone staring accusingly at him. He wished they’d all let it go, for his son’s sake.

Harry sat down and sighed, rubbing his hands over his tired face. “I’m not exactly sure. After I…blacked out – ”

“Died. You died, Harry,” Severus corrected. He would not let his son sugar coat what had happened, lest the boy forget the seriousness of his actions.

“Yes, after I killed myself, I woke up on the quidditch pitch, flying. Dumbledore was there too, and he talked to me. He told me that my death was the only way to destroy the Horcrux in me, but because I had died by my own hand, I would be sent back. Voldemort and I must die at the hand of the other. I died by my own hand, and it was my sacrifice that destroyed the Horcrux. He also told me that there’s still one more Horcrux.”

“More? Bloody hell!” Ron shouted, ignoring the shushing noises and arm flapping Hermione did towards him. “How long are we going to be searching for these things?”

“We won’t. There’s only one more, and I know exactly where it is. Dumbledore told me the best way to destroy them all at once, but if we do that, Voldemort will know. Once his last Horcrux is destroyed, he’ll finally feel it, and he’ll be mortal once more.”

“So, if we destroy them together, then we better be prepared for a battle,” Severus said, sharing a significant look with his husband.

“Yes, I think so. I think it’s time to call a meeting with the Order.”

“Wait a minute. The Order doesn’t know about the Horcruxes. Hell, most of the Weasleys don’t know about them. What are we supposed to tell the Order?” Remus asked, giving Harry a little bit of pause. The teen hadn’t really thought about that. He was so used to everyone around him knowing about the Horcruxes that he almost forgot it was supposed to be a secret.

“Do we really need to tell them the details? We can tell them when and where so they can come up with a battle plan, but why would they need to know about the Horcruxes at all?” Harry asked, receiving a few surprised looks. Did they all think he was suddenly stupid? He ground his teeth together, eager to be alone once more where the only accusations he could hear were his own.

“We’ll have to be very careful about this, but I think Harry is correct. We’ve called meetings based on Harry’s visions before; we’ll simply tell the Order that this is another one of those occurrences. It will be up to the few of us who know to deal with the Horcruxes, and let the rest of the Order cover us,” Severus said, feeling a very ominous feeling take over the room as everyone seemed to realize that this was it; this could mean the end of the war was near.

“What about Harry? The Prophecy states that he has to be the one to kill Voldemort. If so, then he needs to be ready to fight as soon as the Horcruxes are destroyed and Voldemort feels it. He’ll know, and he’ll be coming after Harry,” Hermione pointed out, sharing a worried look with Ron. She had always thought that, in the end, it would be her and Ron by Harry’s side. But Harry had so many people willing to stand by him, fight for him and die for him, that it seemed like they’d have to compete for the honour of standing with The Boy Who Lived – twice now.

“Wait, wait! We’re forgetting something here; I can’t use my wand against Voldemort, unless we want a repeat of the Priori Incantatem fiasco that happened in the graveyard. I don’t think I could handle that again. I can’t even begin to describe the power it took to force the spell back into Voldemort’s wand. I still don’t know how I did it, to be honest.”

The wand. The Elder Wand. Harry could use the Elder Wand against the Dark Lord, without having issues of twin wand cores. He knew Albus had had the Elder wand at one point because he knew Grindelwald’s history and obsession with the Deathly Hallows, but he had never spoken to Albus about it. He knew, though, he was sure of it. The wand entombed with the late Headmaster had to be the Elder Wand. Could this be the opening Severus was waiting for?

Severus had been contemplating bringing it up for a while, but he was unsure of the reaction he would receive. Remus had already expressed his feelings towards at least one of the Hallows, but if Harry’s cloak was the real thing, and access to Dumbledore’s wand wasn’t a problem (if you counted digging it out of the man’s grave not a problem), why wouldn’t they use this fathomless power to their advantage?

 “Well, you could always switch wands with someone when the time came,” Ron suggested, his own wand sitting on the table in front of him. The redhead gripped it protectively, as if his wand wasn’t up for the switching act.

Hermione too was gripping her wand, as was everyone else. A wand was a very personal thing, very specific to each witch or wizard it belonged to as well. “I don’t think that would work. Whoever he switched wands with would have to have nearly the same magical strengths as Harry in order for it to work for him at all. Wands aren’t just interchangeable like that. The wand chooses the wizard, remember?”

The brainy Gryffindor was completely correct, Severus noted with an internal grumble. The girl was nearly always right, it seemed. He wondered how she would react to the idea of the Hallows being used. Decision time.

“There is another option,” Severus said, drawing everyone’s attention away from their wands and onto him. “Harry, could you bring me your invisibility cloak, please?”

“Er, ok…” Harry said, sharing a puzzled look with Remus as he stood up to go fetch his cloak. On his way up the stairs, Harry saw Draco coming down and it looked like he was heading towards the kitchen. He completely ignored Harry, and the Gryffindor felt his anger pulse once more.

“Draco, I wish you would just talk to me. I can’t explain myself if you won’t allow me to speak.”

Draco spun around at the bottom of the stairs, his icy eyes blazing with anger once more. “Explain yourself? What is there to explain? You’re a selfish arse who thought only of himself!”

Harry felt the blonde’s words like a slap in the face. How could he convince everyone that he had not been thinking of himself in the slightest when he decided to sacrifice himself to get rid of the Horcrux within him?

“I wasn’t thinking of myself at all! You know what I was thinking? How much I would miss holding you, and kissing you. How I wish I could meet my unborn little sister. How bad I wanted to be at Ron and Hermione’s inevitable wedding. How much I wanted to watch my parents grow old and raise their little girl together. How much I loved everyone I was leaving behind, but didn’t feel like I had a choice! My continued existence guaranteed Voldemort’s success. I thought I was doing the right thing, damn it!”

Draco was facing away from him with his arms crossed over his chest. Harry had the strongest urge to rush down the stairs and punch the man he loved just to get his attention. There was a heavy silence between them, so heavy it weighed on Harry’s heart. The frustration, the pain, the anger – it all gathered in Harry’s chest until he stomped his foot and yelled:

“LOOK AT ME!”

The blonde slowly began to turn around, his eyes still averted to the ground. That’s when Harry saw the tears falling from him cheeks, gathering on the wool jumper he wore – Harry’s wool jumper. Watery, blood shot eyes rose up to meet Harry’s emerald, a look of utter anguish carved into his aristocratic features.

“I was so scared, Harry. I felt like my life was over. How else did you expect me to react?”

Harry walked down the couple of steps until he was level with Draco. He tilted the other teen’s chin up until he could look into his eyes, seeing all of the pain and anger he felt himself reflected in them.

“I felt the same exact way. I wasn’t thinking about reactions; I was thinking about making sure we were the winning side. Maybe I am selfish. I just want my family back, without the suspicion and anger. I want you back.”

Draco reached out and brushed the hair out of Harry’s eyes, his other hand wrapping possessively around the Gryffindor’s hip as he pulled him closer, their noses almost touching.

“I’m sorry I punched you.”       

“It’s ok; I deserved it.”

“Yeah, you did.”

Harry’s frown stretched into a grin. Maybe things would start to get better now. The bitter loneliness of his cold bed had made everything that much harder to cope with in the end.

“I love you,” Harry whispered, his forehead leaning comfortably against Draco’s.

“I love you too, you prat. If you ever do that to me again, I’ll find a way to bring you back to life and kill you all over again myself. Got it?”

Harry nodded slowly. “Got it.”

Kissing Draco for the first time in what felt like forever was like rubbing a salve on an aching wound. Only when the door to the library opened and expelled an annoyed looking Potions Master did Harry remember he had been on his way to get his cloak when he ran into Draco.

“I guess I can’t be too angry with you,” Severus sighed, feeling a knot in his chest he wasn’t aware of loosen considerably at the sight of his son and godson together once more.

“Sorry, Dad,” Harry said, blushing a little as the Potions Master only shook his head with a faint smile.

“Do not be; just go get your cloak. I need to fetch something as well. Draco, can you let your father know he’s needed in the library? We’re preparing to call an Order meeting and we need to brief him on a few things. You as well, I suppose.”

Draco looked a little surprised to hear of an impending meeting with the Order, but nodded anyways. “Clearly I’ve missed something, but I’ll go let him know.”

After Draco had run back up the stairs to fetch his father, Harry and Severus continued up the stairs together at a slightly slower pace.

“Dad, what is this about? Getting my cloak, I mean,” Harry asked tentatively, still unsure of just where he stood with his father at this point. The man had been so angry with him.

Severus sighed as they stopped in front of Harry’s bedroom door. He wanted to make sure he told everyone together, as he had no desire to explain it all once more. He had already told Remus about it when he first learned of the Hallows, but the man was either playing dumb, or didn’t realize why Severus had asked Harry to fetch his cloak.

“You’ll find out soon enough, Harry. Get your cloak and go back to the library, all right?”

Harry was still curious and suspicious, but he did what he was told anyways. Five minutes later, Severus, Lucius, Harry, and Draco came back into the library. The Potions Master was the last one in, and he turned to place what seemed like an excessive amount of locking and warding spells on the door, including silencing spells.

“Severus, what’s going on?” Remus asked, feeling that same surge of anger he felt before when his husband had been keeping things from him. Only when he saw the white handkerchief in Severus’ hand and Harry’s cloak upon the table did he realize what was going on. “Oh!”

“I need everyone here to keep an open mind about what I’m about to tell you. I’m sure all of us here have heard the tale of the three brothers?” Severus paused as he waited for everyone to confirm that they knew what he was talking about.

“Well, as it turns out, the tale is not just old folklore, but a true story, in part. Ignotus, Antioch, and Cadmus were three brothers, the last of the male line of a medieval pure-blooded family; the Peverell family. The tale tells of the three brother meeting Death and being gifted with the Deathly Hallows. I have done much research, and discovered that Dumbledore had also researched the brothers. In fact, Dumbledore spent a very large portion of his life researching the brothers, and the supposed hallows they possessed.

“Instead of receiving these three things from Death, Dumbledore believed that the Peverell brothers were extremely powerful, and they created the three Deathly Hallows: Antioch created the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand ever made, but went mad with the power, and it’s reputation as the Death Stick was born as Antioch was killed by someone seeking the power of the wand.

“Cadmus created the Resurrection Stone, a stone which had the power to call back loved ones from the dead, as a way of getting back his beloved wife who died in child birth. However, the stone only brought back a shadow of the former person, and Cadmus’ wife longed to return to the afterlife. Cadmus killed himself later in life, too consumed by grief from the loss of his one true love. The Resurrection stone was set into a ring, which was then passed down through the generations. Cadmus left behind a daughter, who married into the Laurette family, which was then joined with the Slytherin family, and descended into the Gaunt family. The Gaunts claimed to be descendants of both the Peverells and the Slytherins, and they were correct. Marvolo Gaunt had a daughter, who birthed one son with a Muggle man, whom she had bewitched into loving her with a love potion. She died giving birth to her son in an orphanage; Tom Marvolo Riddle, better known as Voldemort. That same ring ended up in Voldemort’s hands, who turned it into a Horcrux. Dumbledore discovered the ring in the Gaunt home years later, and was fatally cursed by the ring when he destroyed it.

“Ignotus created the invisibility cloak, a most useful bit of magic that was less ambitious than the Elder wand, and less desperate than the Resurrection stone, which passed from father to son for generations, finally ending up in the hands of the Potter heir; Harry.

“These three items are supposed to make one Master of Death, and as such, Voldemort has been after them for years. He didn’t know that he once had possession of one, but the one he seeks, far more than anything else, is the Elder wand.”

Everyone sat stunned, taking in all of the information Severus had just given them. To hear that a fairy tale one heard as a child was really based in truth that was so heinous, so convoluted was a bit of a conundrum, especially to the pure-bloods who had grown up listening to the tale, but never knowing the true history.

“I’ve had one of the Hallows this whole time?” Harry asked, rubbing the cool material of his cloak between his fingers reverently. He now knew the importance of receiving it, by way of Dumbledore, from his father his first year of Hogwarts.

“The Malfoys descend from the Laurettes. There’s actually a portrait of my great, great Grandmother wearing what we thought of as the ‘Peverell ring’ in Malfoy Manor. The ring was lost from my family long ago. I never suspected it was anything special…” Lucius Malfoy said, seeming a little punch-drunk after hearing a bit of family history he was not aware of. Most pure-bloods, like the Malfoys, prided themselves on knowing their pedigree very well. It was not often a pure-blood was schooled on their own history.

“But what about the Elder wand? Harry has the cloak, and you have the ring there. What ever happened to the wand?” Hermione asked. She had heard of the Death Stick before.

“The Elder wand, or Death Stick, is infamous for its great power and the number of lives it has taken. The thirst for such power was so great that many have killed for a chance to be the master of such a wand. Instead of being passed down through family, it has passed through a line of power hungry, relentless wizards who have, ironically, almost all died by the very wand they possessed for a short time. The last of the wizards to kill for this powerful wand was none other than Grindelwald. When Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald, he became the master of the Elder wand.”

“The wand he was buried with!” Draco exclaimed, remembering precisely what the wand had looked like from many years of seeing the late Headmaster use it at Hogwarts.

“So Dumbledore was in possession of all three Deathly Hallows in his lifetime, just not at the same time?” Remus asked. He knew the story of the Deathly Hallows, but Severus hadn’t told him that Dumbledore was such a key figure in the story of the Hallows.

Severus nodded as he unwrapped the ring from the handkerchief and displayed it on the table. The black stone was cracked right down the centre, through the etched line that was supposed to represent the Elder wand in the sign of the Deathly Hallows. “Yes, Dumbledore had all three, but never all at once. It may interest you to know that Dumbledore and Grindelwald were actually good friends in their youth, and what brought them together was a mutual interest in obtaining the Deathly Hallows. After Dumbledore learned of their dark history, specifically the Elder wand, he tried to stop Grindelwald from seeking the Hallows, but he failed. Grindelwald killed the previous owner of the Elder wand, and Dumbledore vowed to take the power from Grindelwald, lest he send the Wizarding world into darkness. Grindelwald did terrorize Europe for some time, but Dumbledore ultimately defeated him. His former friendship with Grindelwald is the reason Dumbledore did not kill him, but imprisoned him in Grindelwald’s own prison, Nurmengard.”

“But Voldemort killed Dumbledore. Wouldn’t that make him…Oh, shit,” Harry gasped, sharing an uneasy look with his boyfriend. That did not bode well for his chances.

“Master of the Elder wand? Yes. However, I don’t think he knows that Dumbledore had the wand for so long, or that he is now its master. We need to protect that knowledge at all costs,” Severus said, feeling a small ball of fear roil in his stomach. Voldemort could not get his hands on that wand, lest the apocalypse Dumbledore had prevented with his defeat of Grindelwald be completed by Voldemort.

“But then how am I supposed to use the Elder wand against Voldemort. A wand won’t work against its true master, will it?” Harry asked incredulously. He should have known better than to think that this would be simple.

“You have to disarm him. Harry, you don’t even need the Elder wand! If you disarm him, then his phoenix feather core wand won’t work for him either, as it would recognize you as its master then,” said Hermione, once again the voice of reason and knowledge within the group.

“Er, Hermione – how is Harry supposed to disarm Voldemort with his wand if the two can’t be used against one another?” Ron asked his girlfriend, the look of confusion on his face mirrored by a few others at the table.

Hermione looked crestfallen and a little embarrassed as she shrugged. “That’s a good question. It sounded good in my head, at least…”

Harry rubbed his temples as he felt a headache coming on. This was all getting a lot more confusing by the minute. In order to use the Elder wand against Voldemort, he needed to become its master, and in order to do that, he had to disarm him. However, the entire reason he needed the Elder wand to begin with was because the twin wands would not work against one another correctly. It was all one big circle of confusion, and Harry was hard put to figure a way around it.

“What if someone else disarmed Voldemort and became master of the Elder wand, and then allowed Harry to disarm them in order to gain the wand’s allegiance. If Voldemort is unaware of the Elder wand’s loyalty to himself, he’d never know the difference,” Draco suggested to the group, although he could already see a glaring hole in that idea, but he’d wait for someone else to point it out.

Lucius leaned forward in his seat and tipped his head towards his son, giving him credit for the idea, at least. “Yes, well, the only time I’ve seen the Dark Lord disarmed was in the graveyard by Mister Potter when the Priori Incantatem took a hold of their wands, and it was the power of the spell that caused the Dark Lord to falter, not a simple disarming spell.”

There was a sudden silence that took over the table as everyone digested the fact that Lucius had been there that night, and on the wrong side of things, and that disarming Voldemort seemed to be an impossible task. The group seemed to be fresh out of ideas as they all looked around at each other, waiting for more suggestions to arise, but none were forthcoming.

“Perhaps we should discuss Horcruxes and come back to this topic later after we’ve all had some more time to think. There’s got to be a solution,” said Remus, feeling a sense of dread grip his heart. If Harry had to be the one to kill Voldemort, then they needed a solution to this problem. There was no other way.

“Harry, you said Dumbledore told you how to destroy the Horcruxes, and that there was one more. Care to enlighten us?”

“The Horcrux Dumbledore had been after the night he was killed was never destroyed. He had planned to remove the Horcrux from where it was and take it elsewhere to destroy it so that he didn’t risk running into Voldemort. When he got to the graveyard in Little Hangleton, he figured out that the Horcrux was actually part of Tom Riddle Senior’s headstone; the scythe that held me captive back in fourth year. He had tested for spells and wards, but didn’t detect any. When he made contact with the scythe, some sort of ward was triggered. He didn’t give me any more details than that. That Horcrux is still active, but Voldemort never knew that’s what Dumbledore was after. The last thing the Headmaster did was successfully dupe Voldemort into thinking that he was really trying to research information on the Priori Incantatem and the twin wand cores.”

“So Voldemort still isn’t aware that we know about his Horcruxes? That’s got to be an advantage,” Ron pointed out.

“Of course it is, but we also must be extremely careful. I’m sure he’s put up more wards and traps around that graveyard now that Dumbledore snooped once. He’s going to be more vigilant of the area for sure,” said Remus, feeling a stirring of panic in his gut. Everything was going to be cut-throat from here on out. There was no choice but to risk things they normally would have avoided. If Voldemort was suspicious of the area for any reason, they’d be playing with fire.

“Alright, enough with the suspense; how do we destroy the Horcruxes, Harry?” Draco asked anxiously. Everyone around table seemed to lean forward as one, fixing Harry with intent stares that made his stomach twist. With a deep sigh, he began.

“Dumbledore reminded me that the diary that possessed Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets was actually the first Horcrux I ever came across, I just never knew that’s what it was. In the Chamber, I used a fang from the Basilisk to stab the diary, ‘killing’ Tom Riddle and destroying the Horcrux. Unknowingly, I used one of the only things truly able to destroy a Horcrux; Basilisk venom.”

Hermione smacked her forehead, looking crestfallen and angry. “I should have known that! Why didn’t I think of that?”

Ron shook his head and grasped her hand on the table top. The look he was giving her was utterly besotted, and it was clear Ron thought her self-shaming was actually attractive. “Hermione, despite popular belief, you’re not actually a walking library of information. No one else was able to come up with all that either, so don’t you go blaming yourself.”

Hermione looked chagrined as she squeezed Ron’s hand back, though she still looked disappointed. Suddenly, she sat up straight in her chair, her eyes wide as Galleons as Remus grinned at her across the table, communicating something no one else seemed to understand.

“The dissolving potion! If we use Basilisk venom as the catalyst, it’s bound to work!”

“But where are you going to get Basilisk venom? Isn’t it incredibly hard to find?” Ron asked, exasperated that Hermione had figured it all out in the end after all.

Severus sat forward, his ‘Professor face’ on as he began to explain. “One of the lesser known facts about Basilisk venom is that it is nearly indestructible. That is to say, it doesn’t spoil, evaporate, or dissolve. Therefore, the Basilisk corpse that still lies in the Chamber should still have a supply of venom.”

“Then I suppose a trip to Hogwarts is in order,” said Remus.

“I’ll go. I’ve been down there before; I know how to get to it,” Ron said, earning odd looks from everyone around the table.

“Ron, you have to be able to speak Parseltongue to get inside. I’ll have to go too,” Harry reminded the redhead. Little as though he wanted to revisit that place, he was the only one who could open the Chamber.

“Open. See, I remember how you said it, Harry. I don’t think I’ll ever forget, actually,” said Ron. Everyone was really giving him strange looks now. It looked as though Draco’s eyes were going to pop out.

It took a second for Harry to realize that Ron had spoken in Parseltongue, as the language was indistinguishable from English to Harry. Not for the first time, he wondered what it sounded like to those who couldn’t speak or understand the language. “Well you still shouldn’t go alone.”

“I’ll go with him, Harry, but I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to leave headquarters,” Remus said, cutting Harry’s protests off with a firm look. “We’ll need a plan. After we finally destroy the Horcruxes, Voldemort will be next. Since it’s you that he’s after, you’ll need to be the most prepared. Get the Order together; Moody and Kingsley specifically will be helpful with planning.”

“And I’ll be helping Lucius and Miss Granger with their variation on the dissolving solution. We’ll need the venom, yes, but the formula must first be perfected,” Severus said, sharing a look with Remus that irked Harry. He knew they were trying to keep him in the house, and as much as he appreciated their concern, he was more than ready to get this done and over with.

“Patience, Harry. It’s almost over,” Draco whispered into his ear, gripping his hand under the table as everyone began to break off into groups, each person knowing their role in what was to come. Harry sighed as he tried to draw strength from Draco’s words.

“I’m not sure if I have any patience left. I guess it’s time to start the floo network. I’ll let Molly know; she worked the network quickly enough last time.” He needed something to do, something to work towards. He felt like he was sitting by while everyone fought this battle for him, but he wouldn’t let that happen. Yes, he knew he had to let the others help him – that he wasn’t alone – but when it came down to it, this was his fight. Harry would be damned if he let anyone else get hurt, or worse, die for him again.

S~S~S~S~S

Sitting at the head of the table in the basement kitchen felt incredibly odd and more than a little pretentious to Harry. He felt more than ever like a child, and struggled to find his train of thought as the Order looked to him for direction. Luckily, Draco was there to help him remove his heart from his throat.

“We’d like to thank everyone for their quick response, and apologize for the suddenness of this meeting, but there is little time to waste, and much to be done. Harry,” Draco said, nodding for Harry to take the reins of the meeting now.

Harry had discussed with the few people who knew about the Horcruxes how he should approach the subject, and they had all agreed that the less who knew about them, the better. It was not absolutely necessary for the Order to know the details, but finding a good way to skirt said details was the trick now.

“The final steps to defeating Voldemort are currently in the works, and a battle plan is now needed. Dumbledore left me a very important task to complete before Voldemort could be defeated, and that task is almost complete. Now I need your help getting him in the right place at the right time.”

“But what kind of task was it? Why haven’t we been told about this task?” Moody asked, his magical eye spinning around and around, making Harry feel vaguely ill. How the man wasn’t constantly dizzy, Harry would never know.

“Dumbledore made me vow not to reveal this task. The details aren’t important. The point is, the confrontation must happen soon, and we need to prepare for it as much as we can. Are you all in, or are you out?”

“There was never a question of any of us being in or out, Harry. Tell us what you need,” Kingsley said, his eyes scanning the rest of the Order. Everyone nodded their agreement with the Minister’s statement, and all eyes turned back to Harry, waiting diligently for their instructions. Harry had never felt so nervous in his life.