Ron stood outside of Sally's home, pacing nervously. His hands were sweaty, and for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to knock on the door. 'What's wrong with me? It's just Sally,' he thought to himself, staring at the door for the umpteenth time. 'You have nothing to worry about, she's your friend,' he told himself, raising his hand to knock on the door before he lost his nerve, and his hand fell to his side again.
He sighed, turning around to look at the front lawn of the muggle neighborhood Sally and her aunt lived in. 'It's nice,' he thought, seeing how neatly the houses were all laid out, all of them sharing a common road with neatly divided sections of land. Each of them with their own small section of road to park their cars on.
"Ron?" is that you, Sally called out from behind him, opening the door with a soft click.
"Sally!" Ron said, with a start, turning around. He looked at her, caught by surprise, his cheeks tinged red.
"Sorry," Sally apologized quickly. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"No, no, it's ok," Ron replied, brushing off her apology. "I'm sorry. I should have knocked sooner. It's good to see you," he smiled.
"It's good to see you too," Sally replied, smiling back. "Come inside. My aunt said she wants to meet you," she said, taking his hand.
"Right, ok," Ron replied, feeling nervous again as Sally led him into the house.
"Hello," a woman said, coming out of the kitchen. "You must be Ron Weasley. It's nice to finally put a face to the name," she said, extending her hand for Ron to shake. "I'm Sally's aunt, Emily."
"It's nice to meet you too," Ron replied, shaking her hand. "You have a really nice house," he added, looking around, feeling a bit awkward. It was his first time meeting a muggle, and he hoped his nervousness didn't show.
"Thank you," Emily said, smiling warmly. "Sally tells me you and your friends were the ones that rescued her."
"Actually," Ron replied, his cheeks reddening. "That was mostly Harry."
"But you were there," Emily replied. "From what Sally tells me, Harry didn't do it alone, and that you were very brave. Thank you Ron, for being there, for helping to save my niece."
"You're welcome," Ron mumbled, his cheeks still red.
Emily looked back and forth between Sally and Ron, a knowing smile tugging at her lips. "Alright, I'll give you some privacy to catch up," she said, taking pity on them. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything."
"W-would you like to sit down?" Sally asked, pointing to the couch, fiddling with her hands as she tried to think of something to say, not knowing why it was suddenly so difficult to talk to Ron, the boy she shared so many interests with.
"Oh? Yeah, that's a good idea," Ron replied, sitting down on the couch, taking a moment to really look at Sally. She seemed mostly ok, but as he'd learned with his brothers, the signs weren't always obvious.
Sally nodded, sitting down on the couch beside him. "…How have you been?" she asked, still feeling the awkward tension between them, tension that had never been there before.
"Some days are better than others," Ron replied with a tired sigh. "My brothers are having a tough time with it."
Sally nodded sympathetically. "Nightmares?" she asked.
Ron nodded. "Yeah, those too."
"What about you Ron?" Sally asked earnestly. "How are you holding up?"
"…I could be better," Ron admitted, looking down. "It's been hard.. I keep thinking what would Harry do. I wish he was here."
"Me too," Sally admitted sadly, having already heard about Harry's condition.
Ron stopped to look at Sally, noticing for the first time she was wearing a hat, and all her hair was stuffed underneath it. He had been so nervous earlier; he had missed it.
"…. Sally?" he asked curiously. "Um.. Why are you wearing that?" he asked, pointing at her hat.
Sally's hand flew up to her head, touching her hat, making sure it was still there, feeling a wave of relief as her fingers brushed up against her beret.
"Did something happen?" Ron asked, noticing the change in Sally's demeanor immediately.
"No," Sally sighed, putting down her hand, feeling nervous again. "I just… I guess, it's nothing," she dismissed. "Don't worry about it, ok?"
"Sally," Ron pressed. "Tell me what's wrong. Maybe I can help," he offered.
Sally rubbed her face, "…It's… just… promise me you won't make fun of me."
Ron looked at Sally strangely. "Why would I make fun of you?"
Sally looked at Ron for a long moment, seeing the confusion and earnestness on his face, and found her courage again. She quickly pulled off her hat before she lost her nerve, her white hair cascading down her shoulders.
"Ok…" Ron replied, now even more confused as he wondered what Sally was on about.
"Oh god," Sally groaned. "That was dumb. I shouldn't have done that," she said, reaching for her hat again.
"No, don't," Ron said gently, grasping her hand. "Sorry. I shouldn't have reacted like that," he said, finally finding his words. "I mean… I saw it already, your hair, when Harry stopped the ritual."
"You already knew?" Sally asked, really feeling foolish now. Of course, Ron had seen it. Everyone at St. Mungos would have seen it, she realized. She just hadn't been awake to notice.
Ron nodded. "I sat with you for at St. Mungos until they sent me home. The same thing happened to Wayne and Oliver."
"Oh," Sally replied, not sure what to say as she fiddled with her beret, still clasped in her hands.
"Yeah," Ron replied awkwardly as they lapsed into silence.
"…I tried to dye it," Sally said quietly, breaking the silence. "With potions, and the muggle way, but it didn't work."
"What happened?" Ron asked curiously.
"The muggle stuff doesn't stick to my hair. It just drips off, and the potions have no effect. The healers think it was the magical backlash from the ritual causing it," Sally explained.
"Is it permanent?" Ron asked.
"I think so," Sally admitted. "The healers said they can check again after a few months, maybe a year, to see if the magic dissipates though."
Ron nodded, "I'm glad you're ok," he admitted. "I was worried about you. When I saw you…" he said, his eyes welling up, unable to finish the sentence.
Sally looked at Ron, her own eyes welling up with tears. Impulsively, she reached out, hugging Ron tight. Neither one of them had come out of this unscathed, both of them bearing different but similar scars. "I'm glad you're ok too."
"I tried to visit you after they sent me home too," Ron revealed. "We all did, but they wouldn't let us see you. They moved you to this special wing of St. Mungos, and wouldn't tell us what was going on."
"I'm ok Ron," Sally said as they broke the hug.
"How are Wayne and Oliver?" Ron asked.
"They're ok too," Sally replied.
"Do you…" Ron asked, hoping that he wouldn't put his foot in his mouth with his next question. "Do you.. remember?"
Sally nodded, her eyes rimmed with tears. "Not everything, but enough. I remember… I remember the pain. Little bits and pieces, it's mostly hazy. When Harry broke the connection to the ritual, her face," she said with a shiver, remembering the face of the demon that now featured in many of her nightmares.
Ron nodded heavily, his mind flashing back to the battle as well, remembering the terror he felt seeing its face, and the horrors he'd witnessed.
"You saw everything," Sally said softly, seeing the look in Ron's eyes as she hugged him tightly again, feeling a stab of guilt at unintentionally making him live through it again.
Ron nodded, hugging Sally back just as tight. "I'm getting through it," he murmured. "Talking… it sometimes helps. Hermione also said writing it down does too. It.. it hasn't worked for me, but Higgs, he said it helped some."
"Higgs?" Sally asked with a quirked eyebrow as she broke the hug. "Terry Higgs?"
"Yeah," Ron said with a slight chuckle.
"When did that happen?" She asked curiously. Higgs was the Slytherin seeker, and also a year above them. As far as she knew, he and Ron hadn't said so much as a word to each other all year.
"In the great hall," Ron replied, his mood sobering. "We had to fight the Alumni in groups. He teamed up with my brothers and Jordan. We've talked a few times since. He's even been to the burrow a couple of times."
"Oh," Sally replied, looking down at her hands again.
"Things are different now," Ron continued. "All that house rivalry stuff is in the past."
Sally nodded. Even before everything happened, she thought it was silly, and wanted it to stop, but not like this.
"Did you see anyone else at St. Mungos? Harry?" Ron asked, after a long pause, breaking the silence again.
"No," Sally shook her head. "We wanted to see him too, but they said he was in a private section of St. Mungos, and they weren't allowing visitors."
Ron nodded, having expected that answer. "They're hiding something," he revealed. "The Prophet, it lied about what happened, and they're not letting anyone see Harry. I think it's connected, but I'm not sure how or why."
"Why?" Sally asked, having read the same articles that Ron had. "What's the point of all these lies? What do they hope to gain?"
"I need you to keep this quiet," Ron said. "But Skeeter came to my house a couple of days ago. She's looking into it. That's how I know Harry's still alive. I told her what really happened. She's going to get the truth out."
Sally breathed a sigh of relief. If there was one thing they could count on in a situation like this, it was Rita Skeeter. She was like a dog with a bone, and wouldn't give up until she found the truth.
***
Albus looked at his wand carefully, checking for any damage. It had been a week since the incident, and his spells were still underpowered. The healers had run multiple tests and told him he was fine, but he knew better.
His wand simply didn't respond the way it used to. It was far more temperamental, sometimes not even working at all, and when it did, it took far more effort than it should have, even to cast basic spells. 'There has to be something I'm missing,' he thought.
Albus walked to his pensive, extracting his memory of the battle to review. It was only after he fought Andre Egwu that he ran into trouble, but his wand itself wasn't damaged. It made no sense.
He stepped back from the pensive frowning. Egwu wasn't even using a wand when they fought, so the Elder Wand couldn't have switched allegiances, and even then it still worked for him, however reluctantly. 'Egwu died, Harry…' Albus thought, his eyes widening as he dove back into his memory, replaying the section where Harry defeated him.
'Is it possible?' he thought, floored. Neither Harry nor Egwu used the Elder Wand in their fight. With Egwu dead, did the wand even have a master? Could it have actually switched allegiances without being wielded by either of them?
He went to his bookshelf, pulling out his copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, finding The Tale of the Three Brothers, and quickly skimming through the story, but there was nothing there to help him understand what was happening now.
He sat down in his chair heavily, considering what he had learned from his own research into the Elder wand. While there was a long and bloodied history attributed to the wand throughout history, it was difficult, almost impossible, to validate those events.
With much of the wand's history being oral, it was impossible to tell fact from fiction, which stories were actual events, and which were embellished, but still held a kernel of truth.
The wand had existed for centuries, supposedly dating all the way back to the 13th century, but it was also quite possible the wand was far older than that.
'In all that time, another incident like this must have happened,' Albus surmised. 'The question is, does the wand go dormant for a time after that, then reemerge later when someone proves themselves worthy?'
In the end, it was all speculation, with nothing concrete to go on, but it was not a situation he could allow to continue. He was far too important to the continued safety and prosperity of the wizarding world to be sidelined like this. Who knew what new threats would emerge without him there to stop them?
The only theory he could investigate at this point was Harry being the new master of the elder wand, but it created another dilemma. The boy was on death's door already, unconscious, and weakening by the day.
He couldn't challenge him to a duel, but then he remembered how Antioch lost the wand. It had not come down to any grand battle, but simply a thief in the night who struck while its owner slept.
Albus leaned back in his chair, letting out a deep sigh. The boy was under heavy guard at St. Mungos, with orders to convene the Wizengamot if he woke. There were far too many questions about how this ritual took place, things that only Harry knew the answers to.
He couldn't send Alister to deal with it, or hire a third party. The killing blow had to come from him. It was the only way to regain the allegiance of the wand. There was no other choice. He would have to do the deed himself, but such an action was not without risk.
His popularity hadn't been this high since the war. As a result, the masses had all but forgotten about Evergreen and his ties to it. If he got caught, if there was so much as a whisper of him causing the boy's death, it would all come back out again, and that was something he could not allow to happen, especially with far fewer resources to manage the fallout than he did before.
He looked at his wand, the wand that had served him flawlessly for nearly fifty years, and knew he couldn't allow it to slip through his fingers. He still had so much work left to do.
***
(update this. Partly the unspeakables left because of Harry. They no about the efforts to reduce his influence, and also Albus's plans to eliminate him, but are not sure why yet. They are unaware of the elder wand details)
"You've done excellent work Tonks," Saul Croaker praised. "Without your particular set of skills, none of this would have been possible," he said, gesturing to the cavernous underground bunker they were standing inside.
"What is the place?" Tonks demanded suspiciously. "Who built it?" She could tell, just from a cursory examination, it was old, possibly even older than the Ministry.
"…I suppose you can call it a staging area," Saul replied, choosing his words carefully. "It's been in our possession for centuries."
"Why did you empty the Department of Mysteries?" Tonks demanded. "Is this even legal? What does the Minister have to say to all of this, or the Wizengamot for that matter?"
"Tonks," Saul said patiently, placing a hand on her shoulder. "We don't report to the Ministry, not even the Wizengamot. We never have."
"What?" Tonks asked, her eyes bugging out. "What do you mean you don't report to the Ministry? Who are you people?"
"Relax," Saul replied calmly. "We didn't harm anyone, and this was a long time coming."
"And that gives you the right to just take everything?" Tonks demanded. "I never signed up for any of this."
"No, no you did not," Saul agreed, nodding his head. "And if you recall, we had no plans to recruit you either, not until you forced the issue at least."
"So this is my fault, then?" Tonks demanded incredulously.
"No, Tonks," Saul replied with a smirk. "Simply a happy coincidence."
"None of these things belong to you," Tonks replied, "especially that," she said, pointing at Merlin's vault.
"That is where you are mistaken," Saul replied. "Any item that finds its way into the possession of the Unspeakables becomes the exclusive property of the Unspeakables."
"What?" Tonks asked, furrowing her brows in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"Oh yes, many of our recruits have that same reaction at first," Saul replied with a chuckle. "But it's all true. It's been enshrined in the laws for centuries."
"That can't be possible," Tonks shook her head. "Why would the government ever agree to something like that?"
"Greed," Saul replied simply. "We paid them, or more accurately, my predecessors did, and the Wizengamot was more than happy to go along with it as they lined their pockets."
"Why?" Tonks demanded. "What do you get out of all of this?"
"What do WE get out of all of this," Saul corrected her. "You're one of us now. Why don't you have a look for yourself? How about this?" He asked, walking up the remains of the golem Harry destroyed. "It's centuries old, perhaps even older, and more advanced than anything we can produce now. Aren't you curious?" He asked, looking back at Tonks.
"This construct, it re-writes all the history books. Think what we can learn from it. How was it made in a time we didn't even have wands? Or how about this?" he asked, gesturing to the remains of the ritual circle. "We thought portals to other world were mere children's stories, and now we know for a fact they are real, and this?" He asked, resting his palm on the cover of the Darkhold. "We've only scratched the surface of what's hidden within its pages, and that's nothing to say of Merlin's vault itself. Can you even imagine what's hidden away in there?"
Tonks looked around the room, "so what? You want me to believe you're all here to do what? Unravel the mysteries of the universe? Improve wizarding society? What is all of this?"
"In a manner of speaking, yes," Saul replied.
"Then why leave the Ministry?" Tonks asked. "Why go into hiding?"
"The Wizengamot has outlived its usefulness," Saul replied. "The decision ultimately fell to me, but they are far too corrupt to continue in their current form. Staying any longer would have brought us down with them."
"Is that why you didn't help Harry, like you promised?" Tonks demanded. "Like I promised. You had me go off impersonating Wizengamot officials so you could take all this stuff out from under their noses instead of helping him!"
"We were there," Saul denied. "We caught up with them on the school grounds, and I will tell you now, they wouldn't have made it to the ritual circle without our intervention."
"What are you talking about?" Tonks demanded.
"We don't fight in the open Tonks, it's time you realize that. We operate in the shadows," Saul replied. "Always have, always will."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Tonks demanded.
"It means Harry and his friends, they wouldn't have survived this fight without us. We created the distractions, picked off a few of their stronger fighters without any of them even realizing it. Do you really think a full contingent of goblins could have marched out of Gringott's with no one in the Ministry finding out?"
Tonks fell silent as she considered Saul's words. It made a frightening amount of sense. There were far too many coincidences, far too many lucky breaks for it all to have happened on its own.
What did it say about the Unspeakables? What kind of training could they have gone through to accomplish all that with no one finding out? It boggled the mind.
"If you were there when the portal opened, why didn't you help Harry close it?" Tonks asked.
"That one even caught us by surprise," Saul admitted. "There was a plan in place to stop it, a last resort. We were prepared to use it until Harry stepped in and did what he did."
"Why didn't you?" Tonks asked. "Why wait and let all those people die?"
"It's called a last resort for a reason," Saul replied.
"What is it?" Tonks demanded.
"In simple terms, a bomb," Saul replied. "The likes of which the world has never seen before, enough to turn the whole of Britain to cinders."
"No," Tonks said, shaking her head in disbelief. "Nothing is that powerful."
"Oh, I assure you Tonks there is," Saul replied. "We took inspiration from the muggles to create it, modeling it after their atomic bomb."
"Atomic what?" Tonks asked, even more confused.
"The muggles discovered something," Saul explained patiently. "It's tiny. Special equipment is required to even see it, but they are what make up everything in the universe. The muggles called them atoms, and when they split them, it releases a tremendous amount of energy."
"In our research, we found magic itself is also made up of these atoms," Saul continued. "But they store far more energy than anything the muggles have ever found. If that creature escaped the portal, we would have set it off, but millions would have died in the process."
"…So what happens now?" Tonks finally asked, trying to digest all that.
"Now we wait," Saul replied.
"Wait for what?" Tonks asked.
"For Harry Potter to wake up," Saul replied mysteriously.
"You think he will?" Tonks asked. "He isn't getting any better. I've seen the healer's reports too."
"Have a little faith, Tonks," Saul smiled mysteriously. "He's survived this long, hasn't he? When the healers only gave him a couple of days to live. The boy is only scratching the surface of what he can truly accomplish."
"You want to recruit him, don't you?" Tonks realized.
"He's impressive," Saul acknowledged. "Solving Merlin's vault was enough to get our attention, and everything he's accomplished since has only made him a stronger candidate."
"And what about me?" Tonks asked. "Have I outlived my usefulness?"
"Far from it," Saul smiled. "Your infiltration skills alone guarantee your place here, but I have loftier ambitions for you than simply acting as our spy."
"And what if I decide to leave?" Tonks asked, boldly. "What's going to happen to me, then?"
"Nothing," Saul replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "You have nothing to fear from us. You're already sworn to secrecy. Your mother, she left for a time as well," he said, expertly baiting the hook.
"What changed? What made her decide to leave?" Tonks asked, eager to know more about her mother.
"I believe it was you," Saul replied. "It was shortly after she became pregnant, but she couldn't stay away forever. Her curiosity wouldn't allow it."
"What happened to her?" Tonks demanded.
"She was studying an artifact that came into our possession before you were born," Saul replied. "For what it's worth, I believe she intended to walk away, but I don't think she ever stopped thinking about it. She came back saying she had an idea, that she wanted to study the artifact again, and I allowed it," he admitted.
"She was brilliant," Saul continued, a touch of admiration in his voice. "In the year she returned, we learned more than the previous eleven years she was gone combined."
"She came back after I went to Hogwarts," Tonks realized.
Saul nodded. "We're still not sure exactly what happened. She was there one moment, then there was a flash of blue light, and she was just gone. There was no trace of her left behind, or the artifact."
"I want to know what happened, everything," Tonks demanded.
"I thought you might," Saul said, reaching into his pocket, grinning inwardly. "This is her notebook. It was one of the few things we recovered. We've been studying it ever since, but haven't been able to make much sense of it. Perhaps you'll have better luck," he said, handing it to her.
Tonks took the notebook, recognizing her mother's handwriting as she flipped through the pages.
"If you want to find out what happened to her, you'll need the resources we can offer," Saul added.
Tonks looked at Croaker, realizing he was right. The notebook would be useless on its own. She needed to talk to the people that worked with her mother. She needed to know everything they knew about this artifact, and the only place she could do all that was here.
***
Harry blinked, looking around. After his meeting with Death he had expected to wake up, but he found himself back in his own mind, but it wasn't as he remembered it. The stone building that represented his mind was destroyed, the ground around it clawed up, and destroyed as well. It was as if a hurricane had struck.
He looked around in confusion, wondering where Merlin could be, only to find himself alone. Not sure what else to do, he concentrated on waking up, only to find that he couldn't.
In a panic, he looked around, wondering what was going on. "Merlin!" he shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth, looking around for any sign of the ancient wizard.
A long moment passed before Merlin finally faded into existence in front of him.
"Merlin!" Harry exclaimed. "What's going on? What's happened here?"
"Harry," Merlin replied, "it's good to see you. I didn't think we would get a chance to speak again after the battle."
"What happened here?" Harry asked, looking around. He had spent almost a year building himself up, but now everything lay in shambles.
"You happened Harry," Merlin explained. "Remember, this place isn't just your mind. It represents the harmony between your mind, your body, and your magic, and it's severely out of balance."
"The battle," Harry realized. "Everything you did to keep me going, this was the price."
"Yes," Merlin nodded.
"Thank you," Harry replied gratefully. "If you hadn't done what you did, I wouldn't have made it. We wouldn't have stopped Morgan."
"You're welcome," Merlin nodded. "And now that you're back, we can build you back up again."
"Why can't I wake up?" Harry asked. "I've tried a couple of time, but it's not working."
"The damage you did to yourself, it's too severe," Merlin explained. "Your body went into this protective state to slow your bodily functions and keep you alive, and prevent you from damaging yourself further."
"How long will I be like this?" Harry asked.
"If we do nothing, months, possibly even years," Merlin explained.
"Years?" Harry asked, looking alarmed.
"It won't come to that," Merlin assured him. "Your body's natural healing processes are slow, healing everything at once instead of focusing on the most critical parts straight away. I can show you how to take control of the process."
"Like you did with the potions I drank?" Harry asked.
"Exactly," Merlin replied. "You're fortunate. You're obviously being cared for by someone that knows what they're doing. They've been feeding you various healing potions regularly. That will give us the base we need to kick start your healing, at least until I can show you how to brew some potions more suited for your recovery."
Harry nodded. "How do I start?"
"Unfortunately," Merlin said, looking around Harry's ruined mindscape. "None of this can be repaired. It must be torn down and built anew."
Harry looked at Merlin in dismay, hoping to at least salvage something.
"It's bad, but not as bad as it looks," Merlin replied. "The important thing is you're still alive, and with what you've learned, you can build it all back, better and stronger this time."
"How long?" Harry asked, wondering both how long he would be stuck in his mind, and how long before he could build himself back up to how he was before.
"There's no easy answer for that, Harry," Merlin replied. "What you're doing isn't a race. There's no finish line to cross. Balance is an ongoing process."
"Ok," Harry nodded. "How do I start?"
"Imagine a fire," Merlin explained. "One that burns hot enough to turn stone to ash. Focus on that," he said, pointing at the remains of the stone structure. "Don't stop until it's gone."
Harry nodded, trusting Merlin's advice. He watched as the stone structure became engulfed in flames, standing side by side with Merlin as it slowly turned to ash, littering the floor of his mindscape.
Time had no meaning as they watched the process. It could have been seconds, hours, even days as the fire slowly burned away the ruins of the stone structure.
"It's done," Merlin finally said, nodding his head in approval.
Harry nodded, feeling a sudden wave of exhaustion.
"You've used up much of the potions in your system doing this, but it couldn't be helped," Merlin explained. "You will need a strong foundation to rebuild, and this is the only way to do it."
"Now what?" Harry asked, tiredly.
"Imagine a thunderstorm washing away the ash," Merlin instructed.
Harry nodded as storm clouds formed above them, angry and gray. Then a torrent of water fell from above them, pounding relentlessly into the ground, washing away the remains of Harry's mindscape, making Harry feel even more exhausted than he did before.
As the storm clouds cleared, Harry looked down, surprised to see grass sprouting from underneath his feet. He bent down, touching the blades of grass. "This is new," he said, looking up at Merlin.
"As I said Harry. We're not rebuilding. We're building anew, something better, stronger," Merlin explained.
Harry kept looking at the grass. It was only about an inch tall, and spotty, with some sections still left bare, and its growth had slowed considerably.
"You've exhausted your magic, along with the various potions in your system," Merlin explained. "But it's a good start," he said, looking around. "I'm proud of you."
Harry smiled. It was rare when Merlin praised him, usually pointing out his mistakes instead.
"Merlin," Harry said. "There's something I have to tell you. I wasn't just asleep. I was talking to someone."
"Talking to someone?" Merlin asked with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I was in a place outside my mind. I don't know for how long," Harry explained. "But I met Death."
"Death?" Merlin asked, his eyes widening. "What do you mean you met death?"
"Death is a person, a being," Harry corrected himself, trying to find the words to explain what he felt upon meeting her. "She said she brought me there, to the in-between, to talk to me."
"She?" Merlin asked, now feeling even more confused.
"Yes," Harry replied. "She told me the story of the three brothers, the real story."
"Real story?" Merlin asked. He'd read Harry's thoughts, catching up with recent history, but the hollows had been after his time, sounding more like a children's story than actual historical events.
Harry nodded, going into the story, explaining how the brothers were three of their previous incarnations.
"Well, that certainly explains a lot," Merlin agreed. "But why would Death pull you into a place between life and death just to tell you a story?"
"Because there's a fourth hollow now," Harry explained. "Death said it would be there waiting me for me when I woke up."
"You didn't know any of this?" Harry asked curiously. Merlin had delved further into their past incarnations than any of their previous incarnations. It genuinely surprised him that Merlin knew nothing about it.
"No," Merlin shook his head. "I certainly would have remembered a meeting with Death. Did she tell you anything else?"
"No, not much more than that," Harry replied. "It was almost like there were rules preventing her from saying too much."
Merlin nodded. "This meeting of yours was not a whim," he concluded. "And with all the warnings I've been given, it means only one thing. Within your lifetime, the event I was warned about will happen, and perhaps you will finally be the one to discover the reason for our existence.
Harry nodded, feeling his eyes droop as he let out a yawn.
"Rest for now, Harry," Merlin said, seeing the state he was in. "We still have much work to do before you can wake up. You'll need your strength for that."
***
Hi! Thanks for reading. What did you think of the new chapter? There was a lot this chapter from the continued fallout from the battle, what the Unspeakables were up to during the battle, and finally Harry's recovery.
Please take the time to review, let me know what's working, what's not. It helps a lot with figuring out what I need to adjust or change to improve the story.
If you would like to support me and my writing, please consider visiting https://taplink.cc/jumpin for all the stories I'm currently working on and early access to chapters 75, 76, 77 and 78 of Legacy of Merlin, along with some character portraits for Merlin, Morgan and Nimue, and an audio versions of the chapters.