[From Samhain to the Solstice]: Birds of Victory, 8/8, Love in the Time of Eagles series, Harry/Theo

[lomonaaeren]

“It’s not what I would have wanted for you. Or what Lily and James would have wanted for you.”

Harry smiled a little wryly at Sirius, who had come to find him an hour or so after Harry had told Sirius what the solution was going to be. They were sitting near the top of the observatory that Eustace had apparently built for his wife. The softly winking stars whirled above them. It was a quiet, peaceful place, and Harry had gone here to be by himself after he’d told Sirius.

“No, I know. But it’s what I want.”

“Really? Or is it just because this is the only way to survive the Horcrux?”

Harry moved over on the large blue-black couch, the color of the night sky overhead, and patted it. Sirius didn’t hesitate to join him, although he was trembling in a way that usually showed he was about to transform into a dog.

He had told Harry that being a dog was infinitely simpler, and Harry could see why he’d wanted to do it. But right now, he needed his godfather with him, to speak to and advise him.

“It’s several years before I wanted to get married,” Harry said. “And I haven’t thought much about marriage because of my age and because of Voldemort and so many other things. But I can’t picture marrying anyone other than Theo, either.”

“Do you want to now?”

“Of course.”

“But you just said—”

“I said that I would have liked more time. But we all would have liked that. It’s just impossible with the way things worked out in regard to the Horcruxes and Voldemort.” Harry ignored Sirius’s flinch and leaned against his godfather. “Given that I can get rid of the Horcrux by marrying the boy I love? Of course I’ll make that decision.”

“And if you regret the marriage later?”

“We’re Ravenclaws. We’ll find a way to get out of the bond without the Horcrux making an appearance.”

Harry kept it quiet that he was pretty sure he would never regret the marriage. Sirius would just argue that he couldn’t be sure of that, and Harry actually didn’t want to have that fight.

Even if, sitting here with the light of the magicked stars shining above him and thinking they reminded him of Theo’s eyes, he was sure than he was right about not regretting it.

Surer than he’d ever been of anything.

*

“Don’t know if they’ll come up to you, Harry…”

“I know. But we wanted to ask them.”

Theo had gone with Harry to talk to Hagrid, and now they were walking through the Forbidden Forest, in the direction of the last place that Hagrid had seen unicorns. The Forest was dark and thick with silence, except for the crunching of the leaves beneath their feet. Theo kept close to Harry, and watched the way that the moonlight made his face paler.

No, they might need to buy unicorn blood in an apothecary instead of relying on the ones in the Forbidden Forest. But Theo knew which would have more meaning.

And meaning was one of the things they needed to defeat the Horcrux.

They stepped out into the middle of a clearing that Theo never would have guessed was there, given the thickness of the branches that surrounded it. Two unicorns stood in the center of the open space, both bowing their heads a little so that their horns were pointed directly at Harry.

Theo froze, but Harry kept walking, his stride as casual as if he did this every day. He halted in front of the nearest unicorn and bowed. “May I have a few drops of your blood to bless my marriage?” he asked. “It would help with defeating a Dark Lord.”

Theo shifted, wondering if they should have talked about it in more detail. Would it convince the unicorns that they needed the blood more if they told them about the Horcrux?

But that would have meant admitting the truth in front of Hagrid, which was unacceptable. He let secrets slip all the time.

The nearest unicorn stepped forwards and stared Harry down. Harry stared back. Theo wondered if he could ever have matched the way that Harry was acting right now, calm and courageous and asking instead of bargaining or forcing.

Abruptly, the unicorn dropped to its knees and turned its head. The horn, so sharp that Theo could hardly imagine it, slit the silvery hide open, and blood welled, the same color as the glimmering moon overhead.

“Thank you,” Harry whispered. He had a vial ready, but he waited until the unicorn had turned the lethal-looking horn away before he approached. He carefully took five drops, the minimum that the ritual had said they needed, and moved away.

The unicorn turned its head back, and for a moment, the horn rested on Harry’s shoulder. Harry simply paused and watched. It seemed as if Theo’s heart was beating faster than his boyfriend’s could possibly be.

“Thank you,” Harry repeated.

The unicorn abruptly rose like a waterspout in reverse, mane and hide a cascade of flowing crystal, and cantered away towards the edge of the clearing. The other joined it, flicking its mane over its shoulder and giving Harry an unreadable glance before it disappeared.

Theo remembered how to breathe.

*

“Thank you for coming to see me.”

Harry had stood outside the gargoyle that marked the entrance to Dumbledore’s office, not knowing if Fawkes would be able to hear him or sense him or not. But the phoenix had appeared above him in less than a minute, swooping down to land on Harry’s arm and sing a low, restless song.

“I’d like a few of your tears, please.”

Fawkes examined him with a critical dark eye, the way the unicorns in the Forbidden Forest had. Harry simply stood there and waited with a slight smile. He knew Theo had praised his courage in front of the unicorns, but honestly, it didn’t feel like courage to Harry.

He had to ask a favor to defeat Voldemort, and so he would ask it.

Fawkes made a soft trill that sounded like a scoff. Harry smiled back. He didn’t know for sure what Fawkes was saying, not the way he would have with a snake, but he could guess.

“Yes, I’m not good friends with your master. It doesn’t matter. We want Voldemort defeated as much as he does, and this is the way to do it. The only way to get rid of the Horcrux in me without me dying.”

A softer trill.

“The marriage rite that we’ll be doing will blend our souls and drive the shard of the Horcrux out, but because I do carry the thing already and have a bit of a taint, we’ll need the unicorn blood and phoenix tears.”

Fawkes flicked his head to the side to look at the robe pocket where Harry carried the vial of unicorn blood he’d gathered earlier that night.

“Yes, they gave it to me willingly, once I explained the need. Sirius Apparated me and Theo here so we could ask them and you.”

Fawkes sat still enough that even the flames flickering around his feathers seemed muted. Harry wondered if he would have to go and buy phoenix tears in an apothecary after all, but Fawkes seemed to be thinking it over. So Harry remained still as well.

Then Fawkes bowed his head, tears welling in his eyes. Harry hastily got out the next vial and held it under the phoenix’s eye. One glittering, crystalline bead elongated and dripped down the side of his face and splashed into the vial, followed by four more.

He would give only the minimum, Harry knew—five tears to match the five drops of blood. It didn’t matter. That was all they needed.

“Thank you,” he breathed, as he tucked the vial away, and watched as Fawkes rose in front of him, shining. Harry did hope that he wasn’t going to start singing and alert any of the professors that Harry was in the school during the Easter holidays.

But Fawkes’s voice came out so softly that Harry doubted someone two meters away could have heard it. It sounded like a blessing, and felt like a warm hand laid on Harry’s forehead.

Then he turned and blazed away, and Harry slipped off, draping his Invisibility Cloak over himself, to tell Theo they had everything they needed.

*

“Is this the part where I’m supposed to give you a speech about what will happen if you mistreat my godson?”

Theo rolled his eyes at Black when their gazes met in the mirror. Theo was dressing himself in black-edged green robes. They were the traditional colors that Nott family members got married in, and Theo would carry on that tradition for his father, who couldn’t be here.

At least I know that Father would have fully supported my marriage.

He turned around and met Black’s eyes. “You know I won’t.”

“You might. You don’t really have a lot of experience at this, and your father was only a good father the last few years he was alive, and you’re young. All of that might mean that you don’t treat him right.”

Theo bit his tongue and didn’t respond for a moment. Black saying that about Father made Theo want to curse him, but he knew that Black didn’t mean it—not the way that other people would have—and also that Harry would be upset if he cursed Black.

“I am following the traditions of my family in valuing and protecting the person I’m going to marry above all else,” Theo said at last. “I would never mistreat Harry. I would never divorce him unless he was unhappy with me. I might not have anticipated getting married when we were sixteen, but I’m happy that we’re getting married at all.”

“And you think you can keep all those promises?’

“Yes.”

“Why?’

“Because I love him.”

It was the first time Theo had said it to someone other than Harry, and he watched Black blink and absorb that. Then Black sagged a little and raised a hand to rub back and forth over his eyes.

“You sound like you mean it,” Black mumbled. “And not like it’s because of his fame, or his looks, or his power, or anything else.”

Again Theo had to bite his tongue, and speak in a measured voice only when he was ready. “I’ve never cared about those things. I fell in love with him because he was my friend and fought for me, and if anything, I’m putting myself in more danger by standing at his side and marrying him while Voldemort’s still hunting him. But I don’t care about that.”

“No.” Black lifted his hand like a lid and stared flatly at Theo. “No, you and your father both don’t care about danger.”

“Thank you.”

If Black hadn’t meant it as a compliment, well, it was too late for him to take back. He gnawed his lip for a bit, still staring moodily at Theo, and then gave one of those barking laughs he was so prone to. “Well, James and Lily would be happy to know I was the one who could stand for them at Harry’s wedding, since they can’t be here.”

“Thank you,” Theo said again, and he even meant it.

Harry would have had to possess a much worse flaw than a godfather obsessed with protecting him to scare Theo away from marriage to the man he loved.

*

They met in the middle of a clearing on the grounds of the estate that had been used by marrying Notts for centuries on centuries, as Theo told Harry.

Harry could feel the magic thrum the minute he stepped through the trees—silvery ones with white-blue leaves almost the color of the unicorn blood—into the center of the glade. The magic lay on him, heavy as a feather-down blanket in the middle of the winter, or the unicorns’ regard. Harry stepped forwards slowly, and then stopped.

He didn’t want to go further into the clearing without Theo with him.

While he waited for Theo to make his entrance from the opposite side, Harry looked around. The ground was the color of bone from the drifted leaves piled on it. He could smell a faint scent like seafoam, and a sharper one that he had always associated with the moon and stars. The air here was considerably warmer than in Scotland, most of the time, but now it felt as cold as winter.

We are beginning a new thing here, you and I.

That was what Theo had said to him before they set out for the glade. Apparently it was part of the rite. Harry turned to face the trees that stood intertwined with each other on the opposite side of the clearing, not knowing why.

Then the leaves of the trees swept aside, and Theo walked through.

Harry lost his breath at the sight of Theo in the green-black robes he had said were the traditional Nott wedding clothes. Theo did look pale, the colors washing him out a little, but also proud and noble and—Harry couldn’t even name how he looked. How he walked, with his chin lifted and his eyes aimed straight ahead at Harry.

Harry wanted to marry the man who was walking towards him even more than he already had.

He remembered to draw out the vial of unicorn blood from the pocket in his own red-gold robes before Theo reached him. Theo inclined his head and held up the phoenix tears. Both of the vials glittered in the light of the half-moon that reached towards them, and seemed softly to thrum.

They waited. A second later, Harry heard paws crunching in the thick leaves that lay on the ground, and Sirius, as Padfoot, hurled himself at them from the northern side of the clearing, halfway between the points Harry and Theo had used to approach.

Sirius transformed back into a man as he approached them. He was wearing fine black robes that made a smile break out over Harry’s face in spite of himself. Sirius had seemed cautious about their wedding, given that he thought Harry was too young and needed more time to think about it, but he was supporting them in his own way.

“I nearly forgot this,” Sirius said, and held up his own vial of moon-pale feathers.

Harry blinked at them, then looked at Theo. From the way he was frowning, Theo might find them more recognizable than Harry did, but he wasn’t shouting it out, either.

“What are they?” Harry had to ask, and Sirius grinned at him.

“The feathers of a mooncalf, of course!” he said, and began to pull the things out of the vial. They broke apart as he did, falling between his fingers in delicate showers like the scales from butterfly wings. Sirius scattered them over Harry’s head and Theo’s. “An old tradition to bless a wedding with them!”

“Mooncalves don’t have feathers.”

“The ones that I’m thinking of do!”

Harry stared from Sirius to Theo. Theo’s face had been mutinous, but he relaxed now, looking at Sirius and shaking his head, then turning back to Harry. He didn’t seem to mind the little silvery flakes that studded his hair like stars in the night sky.

“A blessing, indeed,” he whispered, and reached out to clasp Harry’s hands.

“A blessing,” Harry repeated, and his hands settled on Theo’s in a grip just as tight.

For a moment, they only stood gazing at each other, even though they knew the first steps of the ritual. Theo’s face had been strained often enough during the last few days that Harry had wondered if even the marriage itself would calm him down, but now he was looking at Harry with adoring eyes, and Harry knew he was looking back the same way.

Theo began the Rite by holding up the vial of phoenix’s tears. “Will you accept the tears of the purest of magical creatures on your skin?” he asked.

“I will.”

Theo dabbed one tear onto Harry’s wrist. It tingled and made a slight pain that Harry hadn’t even noticed from gripping his quill tightly go away, which in turn made him smile. He looked up at Theo and dropped to one knee for the next portion of the Rite.

“Will you accept the tears of the purest of magical creatures on the sign of what we must purge?”

“I will.”

Harry closed his eyes as Theo dabbed the next tear on his scar, and not because he was afraid it would run down and sting them. He was simply overwhelmed by the gentleness Theo was showing him, by the way that his hand didn’t shake because Theo willed it not to shake.

The tear seemed to nip Harry more this time than the one on his wrist had. They waited, but nothing else happened, so Theo drew a deep breath and continued with the next line.

“Will you accept the tears of the purest of magical creatures into your very soul?”

“I will.”

Theo paused as if to make absolutely sure, again, that his hand wouldn’t shake, before he bent down and dabbed the tear on Harry’s lips. It evaporated with a smell like snow and a faint, sharp noise that might have been the beginning of a phoenix song.

At the same time, Harry gasped. It felt as though some wound he had received when he was a child and long since ceased to notice had stopped hurting.

Perhaps the tear had affected his soul.

“Will you accept the tears of the purest of magical creatures into your heart?”

Harry nodded and lifted his fine robes. He enjoyed the way that Theo’s gaze lingered on his chest for a moment before he knelt himself and spread the next tear in a circling motion, like an unguent, across the skin above Harry’s heart.

This time, Harry thought he felt the gentle touch of a bird’s talons before the tear lashed like a whip and vanished, and then a momentary serenity settled over him that calmed his last fears about whether they could really pull the Rite off.

“Will you accept the tears of the purest of magical creatures into your body?”

“I will.”

This time, Harry opened his mouth instead of just letting Theo smear the liquid across his lips, and the taste of snow and wild mountain heights settled on his tongue, then turned into fire almost before Harry could absorb it.

Above him, the darkness broke into blazing light as a white, five-pointed star appeared, spinning above their heads low enough for them to feel its heat. Harry smiled at it as he climbed to his feet and held up the vial of unicorn blood.

“Are you ready to accept the gift of the most innocent of magical creatures?” he asked Theo, the words falling from his lips as if they had already been waiting behind them.

*

This is really happening. I am going to marry him.

Theo was shaking with desire and delight as he laid his own empty vial in the snow and smiled at Harry. “I am.”

Harry made a rapid step towards him and then tipped the vial so that all the drops of unicorn blood fell onto Theo at once.

Theo tilted his head back, closing his eyes, as he felt the blood soak into his skin. This was about far more than the acceptance that Harry had spoken as Theo gave him the phoenix tears. This was about sharing his own purity and innocence, as someone never touched by a Horcrux, with Harry, and the unicorn blood would serve as a test of his willingness.

The blood ran across his skin without pause and down onto the ground, where Theo knew he would see it pooled on the white leaves of the wintertrees if he looked. He did not look. He kept his eyes shut and reached inwards, straight towards the purity that he had begun to meditate on a day ago.

It rose up in his mind, sharp and white as a glass blade. It wasn’t purity in the way that weak-minded followers of the Dark Lord thought of it, as never marrying someone further away your bloodline than a cousin, and it wasn’t the weak-minded innocence that most Gryffindors would have named if asked. It was purity of purpose, clean and pointed, not divisible.

He lashed out with it towards Harry.

Harry gave a breathless cry. Theo rose to his feet with his eyes still shut, resisting the temptation to open them and see what had happened to Harry. He knew what had happened to Harry. Theo’s shared purity was carving out the Horcrux. It could not help but be painful.

And now…

Now.

Theo did open his eyes then, and Harry was stepping forwards, shaking, his lips bright with blood where he’d bitten them, to clasp Theo’s hands. Theo grabbed them as he had before and drew Harry towards him. The words they needed now were rather different.

“Do you swear to stand beside me, sharing souls and magic, for the rest of your life?” he whispered.

“I do,” Harry said, and smiled at him in a dazzling way that made Theo simultaneously breathless and gleeful. No one else was ever going to see Harry smile like this, even though they would all have wanted to date him if they did. “Do you swear to stand beside me, sharing souls and magic, for the rest of your life?”

“I do,” Theo breathed, and felt the pressure of metal on his right ring finger. The rings of Nott marriages were forged of magic and promises. It would have begun to come into existence at this moment.

From the way Harry started, he’d felt the same thing.

“Do you swear to share thoughts with me, heartaches, passions, curses, and inner fire, from this day until the day of your death?” Theo asked, catching Harry’s eyes again.

“I do,” and the promise sounded as if it had the whole of Harry’s being in it. “Do you swear to share thoughts with me, heartaches, passions, curses, and inner fire, from this day until the day of your death?”

“I do.” Theo had never meant any words more.

Another strand of the ring formed. Theo bent down and kissed the back of Harry’s hand without looking away from his face. Harry’s cheeks burned, but he took a deep breath and spoke the last line of the marriage rite, the one the person who was not a bloodline Nott had to speak.

“Will you swear to share the magic of your family and your home with me, as I share the magic of my life with you, from now until the ending of your days?”

“I will,” Theo said. “Will you share yourself with me, as more than fair recompense for anything I might give you in return, from now until the ending of your days?”

Harry looked up at him, eyes green as the Forbidden Forest and wild as Fiendfyre, and said, “I will.”

Black let out an obnoxiously loud laugh and applauded. Theo ignored him as he bent his head, and Harry surged up at the same time, their teeth sliding and clicking together as they kissed.

It sent a spark of pure joy spiraling up into Theo’s chest, and he pulled Harry even closer and kissed him harder. Harry made a little happy sound in his throat. Theo stroked his shoulders and felt—

He felt the moment when the Horcrux in Harry began to burn, overpowered by their shared magic and the purity of their love.

There was a distant, terrible shriek of fury, like the opposite of phoenix song, and Harry gasped. Theo pulled back at once, looking for some sign of a wound, and found Harry holding his hand to his forehead.

“Harry? Is your scar bleeding?”

“There was pain, but—”

Harry drew his hand back, and Theo stared. Every trace of the scar on his forehead had gone.

Theo stared for long enough that he could see Harry’s smile start to drop out of the corner of his eye, and then he grabbed Harry and dragged him forwards, nearly smashing his own nose against his boyfriend’s, to kiss him again. Harry laughed, full and free, and Theo stuck his tongue into Harry’s mouth right in front of his godfather.

Black made choking noises.

It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered at the moment but that Theo was holding his husband in his arms, and he whirled around and bent Harry backwards as he kissed him again.

Harry laughed a second time, and looped his arms around Theo’s neck, with the kind of strength that meant they would never part, and Theo kissed him again.

*

Harry stretched his arms over his head and smiled up at the sunlight.

He lay in Theo’s bed, with Theo still curled so possessively around him after their night together that Harry’s arms were basically the only thing he could move. He shifted and gave a private smile at the ache in his arse. He had enjoyed himself thoroughly, and it was all so sealed with magic and vows that no one would be able to take Theo away from him.

Or him from Theo.

“Harry.”

Harry turned his head to the side, and Theo was waiting for him, eyes wide, mouth open. Harry rolled on top of him and happily lost the rest of the morning.

They could worry about Voldemort later.

*

“I went to Grimmauld Place, and Draco and Narcissa were there.”

Black was avoiding his eyes. Theo raised his eyebrows and put down the Prophet, which he had been reading just to see if any incidents were reported there that might indicate the demise of Voldemort’s wraith. There had to be a reason that Black was telling Theo this first instead of Harry.

“Yes?” Theo asked slowly.

“They—they had tried to bring Lucius with them.”

Theo sat up. “And your wards and the Portkey restrictions prevented them?”

“Yes.” Black’s voice was hoarse. He closed his eyes and dashed a hand across them. “I think that letter Draco sent, that Harry told me about…I think he was begging for all of them to be saved from the possession, Lucius as well. But the wards on Grimmauld Place and the spells I put on the Portkeys destroyed Lucius’s body when they tried to pull him with them. Maybe they thought he wouldn’t be excluded if Voldemort really got banished from his body after your destruction of the Mark. But he was.”

“Are you afraid that Harry will hate you for this?”

Black flinched and stared at Theo with wide eyes. “I—I didn’t put it to myself that way.”

Theo snorted. “Unless you turned on me, nothing you did could make Harry hate you.”

“I would never do that!”

Theo believed him, but just in case, he was glad he had delivered the message. He shook his head. “Then what is it that you’re afraid of telling him?”

“The wards tore Lucius’s body apart,” Black said in a rush. “Draco and Narcissa are both traumatized. They’ve also kept Draco safe from possession, but he doesn’t know how to cope with his father’s death. He might have tried to help you because he was afraid of his mother dying, but he hasn’t actually lost someone close to him before.”

“And you’re worried Harry will be upset that you hurt someone he tried to help.”

“That is something that seems likely.”

“It was accidental. And I know that Harry felt no goodwill towards Lucius after the attack on him at King’s Cross, which might have happened only because Voldemort was driving him. Harry wouldn’t have expected Draco to prevent that, and he won’t expect you to have prevented this.”

Black exhaled slowly and leaned back against his chair. “Thank you, Nott.”

Theo smiled and moved them past the moment. “You know that if you speak that name now, Harry will answer to it, too.”

“I still don’t understand why he gave up his last name.”

“It was a requirement of the Rite of Purity, that Harry become a Nott, since I was sharing my purity with him.” Theo blithely ignored the way that Black rolled his eyes and muttered about Theo’s purity. “But think about it. What has the name Harry Potter brought him?”

Black hesitated. Then he said, “Fame?”

“Fame he didn’t want, an unhappy childhood, people who thought they had some right to his time and attention when they had no right.” Theo took a deep breath and shook his head. He would start ranting if he went on, and he didn’t want to do that. “Harry doesn’t have living parents or siblings or anyone else who could really show him that the name Potter was a good one to bear. Of course he’d want to become part of the family that sheltered him.”

“It’s still the ending of a name.”

“And mine would end if I took the name Potter. And yours will end if you don’t have children.” Theo shook his head again. “What matters is his happiness and my love for him, not the name he bears.”

Black closed his eyes for a moment. Then he sighed. “You’re right.”

“It’s amazing you can admit that.”

Five minutes later, when Harry came down the stairs and found them, they were bickering. Harry stood there and watched them with brilliant, happy eyes. Black didn’t even flinch when Theo went over, looped an arm around Harry’s waist, and kissed him.

Yes, they were alive, and they would be happy.

*

Harry knocked on Dumbledore’s office door, and heard the cheery summons to enter. He sat down in the chair in front of the Headmaster’s desk and smiled at him.

“Your scar is gone.”

“Yes, sir.” Harry let his smile widen across his face. “And I heard a distant shriek at the same time, so I think that was the ultimate destruction of Voldemort’s wraith.”

“I wish we could be sure of that, Mr. Potter—”

“Mr. Nott, now. I’m making sure to tell all my professors as I go.”

Dumbledore paused. He scanned Harry slowly, as if thinking that he might be lying. Harry stared harder at him, and let the truth rise to the surface of his eyes, where Dumbledore could read it with his Legilimency if he wanted to.

The Headmaster closed his eyes and seemed to age as he sat there. “I would not have had you get married to defeat Voldemort,” he whispered.

“No, you would have had me die.”

“That is not—I regretted that.”

“But you regret more that I got married?”

“You are so young,” Dumbledore said.

Harry shrugged. “I might have waited a few more years to choose Theo if I had the chance, but I would have chosen him. You don’t have to worry about it, sir. We’re going to be happy together.”

“And you will not reconsider?”

“Why should I? I’m so happy that it makes my chest hurt when I wake up each day. And you only offered me death.”

“I believed it to be the only solution.”

Harry stared at Dumbledore in silence for long enough that he saw the man swallow nervously. And that made Harry smile. All he had really wanted Dumbledore to acknowledge was that Harry had the power here.

“I know,” Harry said, in forgiveness. “But it wasn’t, and now I’m alive, and I’m with Theo, and I want your word that you won’t try to convince me to commit suicide.”

“My dear boy—”

“Your word, Headmaster. No loopholes.”

Dumbledore paused, staring at him, and then he said, “You will allow me some time to convince myself that Voldemort has passed away?”

Harry leaned forwards. “No. Because if some part of his wraith does survive, we’ll find a way to take him down, Theo and I. We’re Ravenclaws, we’re determined, we love each other, and there is nothing more powerful on earth, I think you would agree, than love.” He did enjoy Dumbledore’s flinch. “Your word.”

Slowly, Dumbledore drew his wand and whispered, “I swear on my wand and my magic that I will never encourage Harry James—Nott to commit suicide again, regardless of what I find when I search for a trace of Voldemort or the Horcruxes.”

There was a glow about the wand, as white as the star of light that had formed above them during the Rite of Purity, that made Harry lean back and draw in a long breath. He felt as light as he had after the wedding.

Well, maybe not as much. He suspected the wedding wouldn’t be surpassed as an experience in his life.

“A pleasure, Headmaster,” Harry said, and bowed his head a little to Dumbledore before he got up and walked towards the door.

“Harry.”

Harry glanced over his shoulder, and found Dumbledore looking at him and holding his wand as though it were a sword.

“Yes, sir?”

“You really believe that all the Horcruxes are destroyed and Voldemort is gone from the world?”

Harry smiled, drew his wand, and said, “I swear on my wand, my magic, and my marriage that I believe we destroyed the last of the Horcruxes when the shard of soul in me succumbed to the Notts’ Rite of Purity.”

Dumbledore bowed his head, and his breath trembled as he whispered, “Thank you, my boy.”

Harry smiled at the Headmaster again, put his wand away, and left.

His strides lengthened when he saw Theo waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs. He swept his husband into a kiss, and looped his arm around his waist as they headed towards the library.

“Come on,” Theo murmured. “We should begin studying for our NEWTS. Now that we can.”

Harry closed his eyes and reveled in being, at last, an ordinary student—if a married one, if still a famous one—discussing study strategies for important exams a year and a half hence.

Reveled in being beyond the reach, at last, of Horcruxes and Voldemort, and everyone who might want to make him face them.

Reveled in being with Theo.

The End.