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Disclaimer/AN: As per usual, I own nothing of Harry Potter. I was reading a Harry is a vampire fanfic and this little tale was born. And since it’s the Halloween season, I couldn’t resist!
Dumbledore rested his head in his hands. What was supposed to be a simple pick up from Privet Drive was now a rescue mission but he had no idea where Harry Potter was. His instruments which measured the boy’s magic, health, stamina, and most importantly the wards around his ‘home’ for the last sixteen years, had fallen little more than an hour ago when Mundungus Fletcher took the boy on a ‘detour’ instead of bringing him directly to Grimmauld Place.
Both Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were furious with the Headmaster for trusting the boy’s welfare with the thief but Mundungus was repentant and volunteered his time for the order. He was certain the man was more useful than harmful to the side of the Light.
A shift in the shadows of his office caught his eye and Dumbledore reached for his wand. Though the night was clear, it seemed the room was darker than it was before. Even Fawkes was still but the phoenix gazed intently at the corner of the room before trilling softly.
“Hello?” It was ridiculous, no one could enter the office unless they took the Griffin gargoyle entrance. Or flew in through one of the windows.
He swore the shadows moved. Just before he sent a stunner into the dark, a young man stepped out. A very familiar young man.
Harry Potter didn’t look as though he spent the summer with the Dursleys. He looked several inches taller than he had at the end of the year and seemed to retain the muscle mass he had gained from running the DA. His black hair was still a shaggy mess but it was his eyes that caught Dumbledore’s attention. They glowed with power, shining in the dark corner of the room.
“Hello Professor.”
“Harry, my boy, what has happened to you?”
“You could say I was awakened to the schemes surrounding Voldemort and myself. But not just me, Professor.”
“You have met up with young Mr Weasley then? He was most concerned about you when I spoke to him tonight.”
“No, not Ron. I’m talking about someone else whose safety you seem to trust with questionable people.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean,” Dumbledore held his hands out in front of him, the Elder wand laying on the desk in front of him, his withered left hand hidden mostly by his robe sleeves.
Harry held out his hand towards the shadows and Hermione stepped out, linking her fingers with his. Dumbledore swore under his breath. The girl had taken a nonverbal curse to the chest in an effort to save Sirius and Madam Pomphrey was unsure if she would survive. And if she did, if she would be able to perform magic.
Sirius wanted her transferred to St Mungo’s immediately following the disaster at the Ministry of Magic but as Headmaster, Dumbledore was able to block the transfer, at least for a few critical hours of treatment.
Now the girl stood before him looking as strong and healthy as ever. Though there were some differences he noted. Her normally frizzy hair seemed tamed, and while she moved with ease considering her injuries, her skin had a pearlescent pallor to it rather than the light tan she normally sported.
A shiver ran down Dumbledore’s spine.
“Miss Granger, it’s good to see you up and about so soon.”
She tilted her head. “Is it, Professor?”
“You both still have me at a loss.”
“Really, Professor, it’s time for the games to come to an end. With Hermione injured, you promised to put wards around her home as well as an Order guard in case one of Voldemort’s Death Eaters was able to get her address from the Ministry files. So you send the most prejudiced member you can find. Hermione’s parents were dead when I arrived.”
Dumbledore’s eyes widened. While any death was a tragedy, the deaths of Miss Granger’s parents and Miss Granger herself would be for the benefit of the Greater Good. A necessary loss.
“Harry, my dear boy, can you explain to me what happened to you? Mundungus was found…well, it’s difficult for me to say but he was found murdered in a most horrible way. How did you escape?”
Harry smiled, teeth bright white in the torchlight. “Who said I did?”
Dumbledore moved quickly for a wizard of over a hundred years old but Harry had reflexes honed by Quidditch and enhanced by his new lifestyle. The Elder wand flew into Harry’s hand with a silent spell and Dumbledore felt the wand’s allegiance leave him.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking what is rightfully mine, old man. Do you have any idea what you put me through? Fifteen years of hell with my so-called family? Years of beatings, starving, being told I was a freak and a wastrel. Then, when you decide I’ve spent enough time there, I get hauled off like a sack and lugged from place to place by a thief doing deals, spouting shit about how he has the-boy-who-lived with him. He was so stupid to be in a Knockturn Alley shop that catered to the wrong sort of magical...well, I suppose you would call them a creature. This one thought if they turned the ‘great Harry Potter’ into their servant, they could rule over the wizarding world rather than bow to Voldemort in the second war.”
Hermione moved to hug him around the waist.
“No,” Dumbledore breathed.
“The pain of the change was …cleansing. Just before my heart stopped beating, I heard a scream and felt a rush of power being released. My body, my mind, became my own again. My heart beat again but I felt such hunger. I drained the one who dared try and control me. I punished the fool who brought me there.”
“You killed Mundungus, but Harry, he wanted forgiveness, he volunteered to -”
“He wanted nothing more than the chance to go out and steal from the homes and shops you sent him to!” Hermione snapped, having been silent until now.
“Miss Granger, how did you -”
“Join Harry? He saved me when you tried to kill me. Granted you tried to make it look like you did everything to protect my parents and myself but when you look closer, it all falls apart. Auror Diggle had no desire to guard a Muggle home and was gone within the first hour, he left on another call to check an incident in Diagon Alley and rather than call for backup, assumed the simple anti apparition and anti portkey wards placed on the house would be enough. After all, who would want to attack muggles?”
Harry took over. “I felt Hermione’s fear, like a bitter potion. I was instantly at her side. It was like moving through the darkness, easier than apparition and I was there. I took care of the Death Eaters, and I regret nothing. Rodolphus LeStrange and Antonin Dolohov will never harm another person. I only wish I was in time to save Hermione’s parents.” He squeezed her hands around his waist.
“But Harry, you’ve killed. You’ve become - you have no soul. There is nothing to prevent you from becoming the next Dark Lord.”
Harry laughed. “I’ve exterminated murderers.”
“You’ve killed people who could have repented and turned toward the Light.”
“You tried it your way, Headmaster. You tried that fifteen years ago and they are still killing. They lie, they cheat and they keep on killing. Fool me once, headmaster. I am not the one lacking a soul. They will not have a chance to fool me twice.”
“Vampires have no soul, Harry. You lost the power he knows not. You will not be able to kill Voldemort now.”
“I am more than just what that Vampire made me.” Harry reached out his hand again and Dumbledore felt a pull on the pointer finger of his withered hand. He tried to curl it into a fist but the fragile flesh snapped and the Gaunt ring flew into Harry’s open palm. It was then Dumbledore noticed the swirling pattern on Harry’s cloak. The invisibility cloak was clasped around his neck but not active. The boy now held all three Hallows.
“I see you understand. I am so much more, Headmaster. I am not a pawn for you to move around on your chessboard of your Greater Good. I am the true Master of Death.”
“But you will need guidance, Harry, you need to understand what Voldemort did to survive!”
“I understand that Voldemort is a coward whose time is up. When the fragment of his rotten soul was cleansed from me, when Death called out to me, he called out to those soul pieces which you knew about since my second year. They are gone and Voldemort is mortal.”
“And Miss Granger?” Dumbledore struggled for some semblance of control.
Harry smiled at the young woman beside him. “Every Master needs his Mistress. Hermione has taken up that mantle.”
“He saved me, Headmaster. Unlike you, Harry wanted me to live.”
“But your magic...”
She smiled and summoned one of the odd glass and silver gadgets that once monitored Harry at Privet Drive. Fawkes trilled and flew over to the young witch, landing on her shoulder and rubbing his cheek against hers before headbutting Harry.
Dumbledore frowned deeply, considering his options.
“And the Weasleys?”
“What about them?”
“Are they not your family as well?”
“Ron is my friend but a fair weather one at that. He’s amusing, there for a good time. Mrs Weasley tries to mother me and tries to boss Sirius around in his own home. She’s kind but overbearing to a fault.”
“I thought you were close to Miss Weasley?”
“Ginny? She has a crush, not on me, but on the boy-who-lived. That is not who I am. I will, of course, keep in touch with them should they accept me and Hermione as we are.”
“But the Hallows, Harry, my boy, I don’t think you are ready for such power.”
“And you are?”
“With age comes wisdom..”
“And with age comes conceit. You are not the only one who understands Voldemort. Not anymore. You are not the only one who can lead the Wizarding world.”
“You must trust me, Harry.”
A wave of power washed over the Headmaster as both Harry and Hermione’s hair rose in the invisible breeze.
“I’m done talking to you, Dumbledore. I have what I came for. If Sirius allows it, come to Grimmauld Place, I plan to discuss things with him and Remus. I don’t plan to go it alone, unlike you.”
There was a sudden heaviness to the air and the darkness spread. When Dumbledor next blinked, the two were gone, along with Fawkes.
Head back in his hands, Dumbledore sat alone murmuring to himself.