“You really want to confront Dumbledore in the Great Hall?” Draco said, raising an eyebrow at Harry.

“It’s the best place. We need an audience,” Harry said.

“How are you going to get him there?” Ron asked.

“Has to be something that gets his attention, but there’s not much left in the Great Hall,” Draco said.

Harry looked up at the Founders in their frame. “Can you cause specific damage to a specific part of the castle?”

“To an extent,” Gryffindor said.

“What do you require?” Ravenclaw asked.

“A crack down the Great Hall and through the headmaster’s podium and the Staff Table. It’ll send a message that we know and we’re coming for him,” Harry said.

“Is that a good idea?” Hermione said, clearly nervous.

Harry looked up from the blueprint of Hogwarts, zoomed in on the tower housing the headmaster’s office. “Good idea? No. Effective? Yes. It will help get more people on our side. You can all only talk to so many students and the professors will be hard to get through to.”

“You really think the professors will turn against him?” Ron said, cocking his head to the side in interest.

“Not without a lot of prodding and proof,” Harry said. “They’ve all been under his Mind Magic longer than anyone. Like McGonagall. He was her professor, like Tom, only Tom got away. We need them though. Even with Dad and Tom and the swords, we can’t beat him alone.”

“Guess he is powerful, even without Hogwarts’ magic,” Ron said.

“Which brings up the one thing we really haven’t considered,” Harry said, getting questioning looks from the others. “The fallout of me showing him I’m alive.”

“What do you mean?” Hermione asked.

“When Dumbledore finds out I’m alive, he’s going to be angry and desperate,” Harry said. “He’s also going to realize that Severus knows everything. Dumbledore will go after him. Tom, too, more than likely.”

“You’re breaking the hourglass, though, so he can’t take their magic,” Draco said.

“No, but he can hurt them through their marks,” Harry said.

“What mark does Tom have?” Ron said. “I didn’t know Dumbledore had given him any kind of mark.”

“I don’t know,” Harry said, shaking his head slightly. “I’ve never seen anything, but there’s obviously something or Dumbledore wouldn’t have been able to take his magic.”

“I think you need to talk to him before we do any of this,” Hermione said. “He needs to be prepared and maybe he can protect himself.”

“Plus, he needs to know the plan,” Draco said.

Harry rubbed his eyes under his glasses before looking up at the clock. Nearing dinner. “Okay, I’ll go see him. All of you, go to dinner. We do this tomorrow no matter what.”

His friends nodded and left the Library to leave the Chamber while he headed out a path to Hogsmeade, sending a message to Tom through the bracelets. He pushed into the Bronze Dragon and headed upstairs when he found the pub empty of both Tom and Kingsley. The door to one of the upstairs flats was open and he knocked lightly, stepping in just far enough to spot Tom crouched in front of the chest that sat on the floor. At his knocking, Tom turned to look at Harry over his shoulder.

“Ah, Harry, hello,” Tom said, dropping what Harry realized was Hufflepuff’s goblet into the chest and standing. “Has something happened? Your message and arrival seem quite urgent.”

“Nothing’s happened, not yet, at least,” Harry said and he moved across the room at Tom’s gesture to join him at the small table.

“Yet?” Tom asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m getting the hourglass and confronting Dumbledore and the Order tomorrow,” Harry said.

“That explains Kingsley’s absence for the last few days,” Tom said. “Are you ready for this?”

“We don’t really have a choice,” Harry said. “We have to end this. However, that’s why I’m here. Once Dumbledore knows I’m alive and realizes he’s no longer connected to me, he’s going to go after you and Dad.”

“If you succeed in destroying the hourglass, that will not be a problem for me,” Tom said.

Harry frowned. “Why?”

Tom sighed. “I was ‘marked’ differently than you and Severus. I was not given a scar or a Dark Mark or anything of the sort. Instead, Dumbledore created something from me.”

Harry waited, watching Tom curiously as the man turned his head away from Harry to gaze out the small window.

“On Halloween night when he killed your parents, he tore my soul and created a horcrux with it,” Tom said, his voice and gaze far away. “A sixth one he doesn’t know I know about, only this one is different because he created it, not me. With it, he could connect to my other horcruxes, my soul, my magic. It’s how he’s been able to do everything he has with my other horcruxes, how he faked our joined possession, how he created me out of the diary and in the graveyard.”

“Do you know where it is?” Harry asked.

Tom looked at him. “It’s the hourglass. He gave it a form after creating it so no one would notice.”

“The hourglass?” Harry repeated. “You said it was Hogwarts’ hourglass, the Founders’.”

“That hourglass does exist and does exactly as I said, but it is not this hourglass,” Tom said. “I believe Dumbledore has been collecting our magic in hopes of finding the Founders’ hourglass, but he will likely never find it.”

“Why not?”

“It is meant to be in the core where you say the prophecy is,” Tom said. “Hogwarts has obviously hidden it somehow.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this before?” Harry asked.

Tom sighed again. “I was ashamed. I knew he’d created it to control me and steal my magic, but once I knew he’d used it to connect the three of us, to steal your and Severus’ magic as well, I was horrified and ashamed I’d allowed him to create it in the first place.”

Harry considered Tom as the man stared outside again, his face tight and full of pain. “You didn’t ‘let’ him do anything. You went to Godric’s Hollow to protect my parents and me.”

“And I failed spectacularly,” Tom said bitterly. “Your parents died, you were scarred and sent to be abused, Severus was forced back under Dumbledore’s control, and I was used to steal magic.”

“Not you,” Harry said. “He stole a piece of your soul and manipulated it, used it against you and us.”

Tom looked back at him again, clearly unsure and regretful.

“It’s not your fault, any of what he’s done,” Harry said. “You tried to stop him, to help, to protect us. I don’t blame you. No one does.”

Tom stared at him for a long while before giving a small, stiff nod. They were quiet for a few minutes, each lost in thought, temporarily transported back to the Halloween night that changed everything. Harry frowned as he thought.

“Was Dad in Godric’s Hollow on Halloween?” Harry asked.

“He wanted to be, but I convinced him to stay behind,” Tom said.

“How did he find out what happened?” Harry asked.

“Dumbledore called him to Hogwarts after delivering you to your relatives and told him what happened,” Tom said. “That’s when he strengthened the Mind Magic and Dark Mark on Severus to create the spy role for the game.”

“So, we’re all connected to Godric’s Hollow?” Harry said and Tom looked at him questioningly. “I lived there with my parents. Dumbledore lived there, too, and killed my parents there. You were protecting us and nearly died there. Dad was supposed to be there and was my mother’s best friend.”

“I’m not sure I follow,” Tom said with a slight frown.

“Godric’s Hollow is where Dumbledore officially created the lives he wanted for us, created our roles,” Harry said. “It’s where he connected us.”

“Are you thinking…?”

“The Sword of Slytherin,” Harry said, nodding. “I think it’s in Godric’s Hollow.”

“It makes sense,” Tom said, tapping his fingers lightly on the tabletop, obviously in thought. “You said you are getting the hourglass and revealing yourself tomorrow?”

Harry nodded.

“What exactly is your plan?”

“The Founders’ are going to open a secret passage into the headmaster’s office by taking magic from the Great Hall while the Order is there. They’ll all go to the Great Hall, I’ll grab the hourglass, and then I’ll confront Dumbledore in the Great Hall,” Harry explained.

“And after?” Tom asked.

“I’ll be going into the Chamber with everyone else on our side,” Harry said. “We’re safe there, for the most part. The Founders are able to combat the Mind Magic more now when we’re down there.”

“Dumbledore will do anything he can to get to you and hurt anyone in the school, so I have to get the sword as soon as possible,” Tom said.

“Can we time it so you get the sword while I’m confronting him?” Harry said. “He’ll be distracted and won’t notice right away. It would give us time to plan because we are not ready to fight him.”

“We never will be, if we’re honest and, like you said, we’re running out of time,” Tom said. “Timing that would be extraordinarily difficult, but not impossible, I suppose.”

“We have to try. We need time to plan the battle at least a little bit,” Harry said. “I don’t want anyone else to die.”

“Unfortunately, that may be unavoidable,” Tom said gently. “It is still a battle to end a very long war.”

Harry ran a hand through his hair and crossed his arms over his chest almost defensively. He looked at Tom, pained. “I can’t lose anyone else. Not my friends, not you, not Draco, and especially not Dad, not now I know.”

Tom gazed at him sympathetically.

“We need to be able to actually fight,” Harry said firmly.

“Very well. The bracelets then,” Tom said. “I will go to Godric’s Hollow and find where the sword is. When you go to get the hourglass, I will enter my trial. Hopefully, I can finish in time.”

“Best we’ve got,” Harry said with a sigh.

Harry pressed himself against the wall in the alcove hidden behind a statue of some famous wizard, tapping his fingers against the stone anxiously. He glanced down at his watch and bracelet, sat together on the same wrist, to gauge the time and check for messages.

Ten minutes into dinner for time.

All in place from Severus for messages.

He dropped his hand and let his head fall against the wall. His eyes fluttered shut as he tried to take slow, calming breaths, feeling his anxiety trying to skyrocket as he waited.

Four minutes.

He played the plan in his mind again and again. He went over everything that could do wrong. He thought about what Dumbledore was likely to do as a result and how they would respond. He pictured Severus and Draco, the life they could have once it was all over. He held onto the thought and looked at his watch again.

Two minutes.

Harry took a deep breath, swallowing thickly. He hoped everything worked. He was terrified of failing, of losing, not only the war, but everything he’d regained. He couldn’t lose the family he’d found, couldn’t make all they’d done and gone through pointless. He couldn’t make Tom’s fight, all he’d done alone, be in vain. It had been Dumbledore’s world for too long. It was time for them to be who they should have been all along, but to get that, he had to succeed here tonight. They had to win.

A light brush of magic blew past him like a soft breeze.

It was time.

He sent a quick message to Tom.

Now.

He looked up at the ceiling as the castle shook and, even from so far away, he swore he heard the echo of cracking stone. He moved his gaze to the corridor that he could just barely see past the statue when he heard multiple hurried footsteps quickly growing closer. He held his breath as Dumbledore came and went from view, followed closely by a large group of Order members, including Severus and Kingsley. He waited until all the footsteps faded away before slipping out from his hiding spot.

With a quick glance down the corridor and another shake of the castle, Harry took off in the opposite direction. He dashed down the corridor until he was standing in front of the griffin that would normally bring him to the headmaster’s office. It was charmed, however, to alert Dumbledore to its use and by whom—the secret to his apparent omniscience—and so Harry moved to where he’d been directed.

To the right, tucked close to the griffin, was a small stone that was oddly coloured compared to the rest. Easy to miss or dismiss unless one knew and was looking. It was an opalescent grey with flecks of bronze. He pushed on it and watched the stones shift similar to when entering Diagon Alley through the Leaky Cauldron. The castle shook and groaned, stone threatening to return to their rightful places. Despite the struggles, the secret doorway opened just enough for Harry to slip through and into what resembled a small, dark alcove.

“Lumos,” he whispered and looked around by his wand light.

At first, there was nothing, just a tiny chamber with no windows, doors, or pathways. He nearly panicked, thinking he had failed after all, but then the castle shook violently, making dust and pebbles rain down on him. The wall to his left crumbled—which he assumed was not normally meant to happen—and a black abyss was revealed. He stepped towards it and, as he approached, a stone stair slid out of the wall to provide a step over the abyss. He stepped carefully onto the stair only for another to scrap its way out above the first.

Blowing out a breath at the passage having to essentially build itself as he climbed, he walked up the steadily appearing spiral stone staircase. He studiously ignored the way some of the steps appeared cracked and crumbling, at least until he had to clamber to the next couple steps as one completely shattered under his foot, nearly sending him plummeting into the darkness below.

Heart pounding, he hurried up the remaining steps as fast as he dared and was able, holding the wall for balance as the castle shook yet again. Minutes later, he finally arrived at the top where he faced what seemed to be the back of a cabinet. He pushed and it slowly swung open, scraping the stone. He slipped out into the office, finding the hidden door was behind the cabinet that held the Pensieve.

“Hurry,” the voice of Hogwarts said.

Harry ran through the office, hopping up the steps to get to the back half. He was relieved to find the hourglass in the same spot, seeming to be almost completely filled with the black and white wisps of his and Severus’ and Tom’s magic. He snatched it up quickly, breathing a silent sigh of relief at not being cursed from touching it.

Holding the hourglass tightly, he hurried back to the Pensieve cabinet, and slipped back into the secret passage. As he hurried carefully down the crumbling steps, he sent a message through the bracelets.

Have hourglass.

At the bottom of the precarious staircase, he squeezed through the doorway that had closed slightly and back into the corridor. Then he ran as fast as he possibly could, jumping down large chunks of staircases and sliding around corners. He was soon outside the Great Hall, breathing hard at his mad dash. A huge crack in the floor disappeared into the Hall, its extent concealed by the doors.

Steeling himself for a long-awaited confrontation, he grasped both doors and pulled, forcing them to swing open dramatically. The House tables were packed full with students who were whispering earnestly to each other as they looked at the newest damage to the Hall and at the group of adults at the end. The crack in the floor that had begun outside the doors ran jaggedly up the center of the Hall towards the Staff Table. Through the Order members, Harry could see the broken podium, the owl split in half and one half lying on the floor. Beyond that, the Staff Table had also broken along with the headmaster’s chair. The crack ended several meters up the wall behind the Staff Table, the windows covered in spidery cracks.

Dumbledore and the Order hadn’t noticed him yet, but he quickly drew attention as he took a few steps into the Hall, straddling the crack between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. Gripping the hourglass and his wand, he glared up at Dumbledore.

“Harry!” Hermione cried out as per the plan. At her shout, Dumbledore and the Order looked at him. Shock and confusion filled the Order members’ faces while rage threatened to fill Dumbledore’s, though he fought to hide it. Severus and Kingsley surreptitiously moved away, ready to help students and flee from the Hall.

“Mr. Potter!” McGonagall exclaimed. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Do you want to tell them or should I?” Harry said to Dumbledore.

“Harry, how did you escape?” Lupin said, his frown deep as he obviously realized Harry was miraculously unharmed for supposedly being captured by Death Eaters for over a week.

“Easy. I didn’t,” Harry said, “because I was never captured in the first place, was I, Headmaster?”

“What are you talking about, boy?” Moody grumbled.

“Exactly what I said. I wasn’t captured. I was here, though we can forgive the headmaster for not knowing that part,” Harry said. “After all, he left me to die and had no idea I’d managed to survive.”

“Mr. Potter!” McGonagall said, aghast. “That is a very serious accusation.”

“Only if it’s not true, which it is,” Harry said. “He lied to you. He’s been lying all along. Nothing is real. He’s been using Mind Magic for decades, controlling all of us.”

“Harry, my boy—” Dumbledore started.

“No!” Harry shouted, glowering. “No more pretending. I know everything. I know exactly what you’ve done all this time, starting with Tom.”

“And what is it you think I’ve done, my boy?” Dumbledore said.

“You’ve hurt people, you’ve controlled lives, you made up the Death Eaters and Voldemort,” Harry said. “You’ve killed people. You’ve stolen memories. You’ve stolen magic.”

“How absurd!” McGonagall said, aghast.

Harry ignored her, keeping his eyes locked with Dumbledore. “Did you really think you would get away with it? You thought we wouldn’t find out? You thought you could do this forever? You thought you could use Hogwarts like this with no consequences?”

“I have only ever done what is needed to keep everyone in this school safe,” Dumbledore said.

Harry could feel the way the air seemed to ripple through the Hall and his eyes narrowed at the man. He knew it was Dumbledore using whatever he could of Hogwarts’ magic to reinforce the Mind Magic, desperate to keep everyone in the lie. Harry could tell it was more of a struggle as the retrieval of three swords was allowing Hogwarts to fight back.

“The only thing we have ever needed saving from is you,” Harry snarled, “and that’s exactly what we’re doing because guess what?”

He smirked at Dumbledore as he held up the hourglass, making Dumbledore’s eyes widen before they blazed with anger.

“I found them, those you took from me,” Harry said. “We’ve also found the swords. We’re coming for you.”

At the warmth of his bracelet on his wrist, Harry threw the hourglass to the floor. It cracked, but didn’t break, making Dumbledore grin triumphantly. In response, Harry pocketed his wand and held out his hands, smirking more as magic rushed around him and the Sword of Gryffindor materialized in his hands. Gasps echoed throughout the Hall. Grasping the hilt, Harry swung the sword down onto the hourglass, shattering it instantly. The wisps of magic inside burst out, flying around the Hall before whipping around Dumbledore, tearing his robes and scratching his face. Dumbledore sliced his wand through the air and the magic disappeared, sinking to the floor in glittery dust.

Harry met the headmaster’s glare as the sword disappeared from his grasp again, returning itself to the core.

“You are treading a dangerous path, Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore said threateningly.

“So are you,” Harry said. “You might have an army, but so do we. If you stand with us, come with us,” he said to the Hall as a whole.

He was joined by Draco, Luna, Neville, Ron, Hermione, and Seamus. Murmurs were still running amongst the students as they looked between Harry and Dumbledore. Questioning and suspicious glances were sent at Dumbledore by a few professors and Order members. After moving his gaze over everyone, Harry looked back at Dumbledore.

“Final round, Headmaster,” he said. “You want me, you know where I am. Come and get me.”

With a glance at both Severus and Kingsley, Harry turned and quickly left the Great Hall, his friends close behind. They ran to the second floor and the Map of Argyllshire. Once there, he turned to his friends.

“You know what to do,” he said. “Get to the common rooms, the library, and the Entrance Hall. Find anyone on our side and bring them to the Chamber.”

They all nodded and split up, dashing away to their assigned locations. The only one that remained with him was Draco and they quickly descended into the Chamber through the Argyllshire entrance. They arrived just as Tom was climbing out of the core.

“Successful?” Tom asked.

“On the confrontation part, yeah,” Harry said. “He seemed thrown.”

“Good, but we surely don’t have much time,” Tom said

“Probably not, but we have all the swords,” Harry said.

“The connection is not yet complete.”

They turned to see Hogwarts standing there.

“On the precipice of battle, the heroes must wield the swords together to complete the bond and core restoration,” she said.

“We need Dad,” Draco said.

“He should be here soon,” Harry said. “He’s getting the Slytherins.”

“Someone! Someone, help!”

The voice had echoed from the tunnel that connected to the Dark Hall entrance and sounded terrified.

“That’s Astoria,” Draco said and the three of them took off.

They weaved through the tunnels until they found a small group of Slytherin students of all different years. They were crowded around something on the tunnel floor from which loud, pain-filled groans were coming.

“Astoria,” Draco said and the fourth-year girl’s head flew up, her eyes filled with tears.

“Draco!” she exclaimed. “The professor! He…he was leading us and then he just…collapsed!”

Heart stuttering, Harry shoved his way into the Slytherins, finding they had been crouched around Severus who was moaning and writhing, eyes shut tight and hand gripping his left forearm. Harry fell to his knees on Severus’ left side, Draco on the right.

“Dad,” Draco said quietly.

The moans were quickly morphing into yells of clear agony. Harry looked at the white knuckles wrapped around his father’s forearm and jumped to action. He fought to pry Severus’ hand away, Draco grabbing it once it was pulled away. Harry grabbed hold of Severus’ sleeve and tore it swiftly all the way up to the elbow, revealing the Dark Mark. He stared at it in horror.

It was the deepest black and writhing on the skin. That wasn’t the horrifying part; he’d seen this before. What he hadn’t ever seen was the blood red and lime green tendrils mixed in the black and spreading out from the mark across the pale skin.

Harry’s eyes flew to Draco and then Tom.

“Dumbledore,” Harry said, voice filled with fear. “He’s killing him. He’s going to kill Dad.”