I'm A Slave For You-Chp88

I'M A SLAVE FOR YOU

Everyone was gathered in St. Mungo, particularly the ward where Albus was admitted in. Harry was right by beside the bed, holding onto his adopted grandfather's hand with one hand and stroking the old man's hair with the other, while Severus was beside the little boy, his arm around his shoulder to comfort him. The DA members were there as well (thankfully they were not present at the Ministry building, so none of them were hurt) so as to watch over their little friend and give him moral support.

As soon as the mysterious group of men and women came in to save the day, Voldemort was immediately knocked out cold and taken into custody. No one knew where Voldemort was taken, but the mysterious group assured the public that he was in good hands for the moment. Cornelius managed to survive the torture Voldemort had thrown onto him, but not without leaving numerous scars on his physique. He was prepared to deny everything he had just said in the courtroom, claiming that it was just to satisfy the monster's delusional thoughts, but luck was not on his side. Rita, forever loyal to her job as a journalist, managed to record everything that he and the Ministry members had said since the moment Voldemort started talking in the courtroom using her recording globe, and even tasked her quill to have everything in writing. That, along with his already ailing body, drove the poor Head Minister insane, rendering him into a permanent catatonic state and making him unfit to be a Head Minister any longer.

Sadly, Albus, due to his old age, could not withstand and pull through from the injury inflicted on him by Voldemort. The medi-wizard diagnosed that he had not much time left in his hands, so it was advisable for anyone close to him to spend his last moments together with him, thus the group that gathered around his death bed.

"Ah, my dear boy," Albus said in a soft, tired voice. "I am so glad to see you alright, even if it means one last time."

"D…Don't say that, Grandpa Albus…" Harry said, fighting back tears. "Y…You'll be fine. Everything will be alright and we'll be together, you'll see."

"Harry, my dear boy, it is not wise to try and teach an old man how to suck eggs, if you get my drift. I know when my time is coming."

"B…But…But I am to be called to meet with the people who had rescued you and everyone else in the Ministry. At least hold on until I come to deliver whatever they're going to tell us…"

"I'm sorry, my boy, but I suppose…you'll have to tell me when we meet…eventually."

Harry bit his lip, still trying to hold back his tears. He had already lost a child; he couldn't bear to lose another loved one who was so parentally dear to him. Burying his face onto the old man's chest, he finally could not bear it and let loose his cries.

"Please…Please don't leave me…S-S-Star has left me…Don't you leave me too…"

"Star…?" Albus chuckled quietly. "Is that the name of my would've-been great-granddaughter? Such a beautiful name."

"She is beautiful, no matter how she looked when I saw her."

"Severus…?" Albus turned to Severus, in which the latter leaned forward to listen. "I have already written my will to entitle every single one of my earthly possessions to lil' Har. You may do whatever you wish to do with it, but promise me you will make sure that it will all go to him first at the event of my death."

"I promise, no, I will swear my life on it," Severus nodded as he put a reassuring hand on Albus' shoulder.

"Rest assured, you have my full blessings on your marriage," Albus chuckled at the mild surprise on Harry and Severus' faces. "Oh, don't act surprised. I did not acquire all the experience in life to be able to tell what goes behind closed doors between you. I had an idea that Severus would pop the question sooner or later. Let's just hope that the prophecy was right about you being the mother of…"

"I don't care!" Harry sobbed. "I don't care if I am to be the mother of the Messiah! The prophecy can go rot in hell! My Star is already gone; who cares about the prophecy anymore? I want you! I want you to live, to see us in holy matrimony! That's all I want! That's all I care about!"

"There, there, my lil' Har," Albus stroked Harry's cheeks comfortingly, trying his best to wipe his tears away. "It's just my time, I'm afraid. You can fight anything in this world, but you can't fight death. Just take comfort in the fact that an old man like me is satisfied enough to watch your union through heaven's eyes."

"Please…Please don't go…Grandpa Albus, please don't go…"

"I am so happy to be your grandfather, Harry, and I am proud to have you as my grandson…I love you so much, Har…"

"I love you too, Grandpa Albus…"

With one last smile, Albus breathed his last, his hand on Harry's cheeks slowly slipping down to his side as Harry wailed bitterly on his body, with Severus holding the boy close, hushing and comforting him from behind.

--:--

The prophesied ones, the members of the Order and the DA members, along with Lil, found themselves sitting in the middle of a huge Victorian hall, looking at each other questioningly and at their surroundings awkwardly. They had never felt so out of place before in a home that was clearly richer and more high-classed than any riches of the wizarding aristocrats combined. Even Trinity Vane that Harry was taken into by Lucius paled in comparison with whatever was displayed around here, almost worth a king's ransom.

Albus and Harry's unborn child Star's funeral was quite lavish, in a sense. Everyone who knew him attended the funeral, from the people of Hogwarts to the people from the Ministry. As all customary Hogwarts magic does, Albus' portrait magically appeared in the Headmaster's office as soon as his death came to pass and Minerva McGonagall took over as Headmistress of the school. Rufus Scrimgeour, who was supposed to be Cornelius' successor to the position, was found to have not attended the public court hearing that day along with a few other ministers who were responsible for the Ministry scandal, and with Rita's recording as evidence, were immediately found guilty of all charges that Albus had accused them of and was stripped off their ranks as ministers and be sent to Azkaban to receive the Dementor's Kiss. Those who have helped the Ministry members to cover up their tracks were charged of obstruction of justice and were to serve a long sentence in Azkaban and once released, exiled into the Muggle world, their wands confiscated and broken. Kingsley Shacklebolt was voted to take over as he was one of the very few that was not corrupted by the system, and he was called in to chair the funeral.

Many tears were shed for Albus, but no one cried harder than Harry, who had lost both a grandfather and a daughter to the collateral of war. They were both buried side by side in a great mausoleum that stood beside the lake of Hogwarts that faced the sun at the horizon: Albus entombed in a white marble sarcophagus carved in his image while Star in a smaller sarcophagus beside him with an image of beautiful little sleeping angelic little girl with wings carved, just the way Harry imagined she would've looked like. At the entrance of the mausoleum, there carved a sign in marble written 'HERE LIES ALBUS PERCIVAL WULFRIC BRIAN DUMBLEDORE & STAR EILEEN POTTER-SNAPE, BELOVED TO MANY, DEPARTED HAND IN HAND TO THE HEAVENS'.

Beck, before they were at Albus' death bed, had requested them to come see her after everything was settled, so after handling the funeral (paid for by the mysterious group, of course), they went a week later to see Beck at the Ministry of Magic building. She brought along a Portkey, which was a sort of medieval staff, and transported everyone into the heart of Wales, where there stood a huge mansion almost the size and structure of the old castle of King Arthur a few miles ahead. They were led into the mansion and into the guest hall by the hired help while Beck went to get their mysterious hosts, which was what the gang were at right this moment.

"I'm scared, Sev," Harry said as he huddled close to Severus, in which Draco did the same to Remus.

"Don't worry, I'm right here," Severus replied, cuddling him. "I will not let anything happen to you."

"Could this be anything to do with the prophecy?" Draco asked, hushing Abigail back to sleep. "About us?"

"We'll just have to see what all this may bring, Drake," Remus held Amarinth close as he let out a nervous sigh. "No point worrying about it right now."

"What do you think might happen?" Ron asked Hermione worriedly.

"I don't know," Hermione shrugged. "I must admit, I am quite perplexed—scared, even—of all this."

"There is no cause for alarm, everyone. Everything's perfectly safe here."

Everyone looked up to see the mysterious group of men and women entered the hall, along with Beck following behind their wake. They gestured everyone to take their seat after they stood to meet their acquaintance. As they waited for the group to settle down and the hired help to prepare their tea, Harry and Draco couldn't help but study the features of their hosts. A pair of them looked like they were brother and sister, with the same blue eyes but with different shade of hair colour (the brother a dark brown while the sister a brownish-blonde, close to dirty blonde). One had semi-long golden-blonde and sparkling green eyes like Harry's but wore black from the neck down, and he and the siblings looked like they were roughly in their early twenties, while the rest looked about between the age of Severus' and Remus', and were obviously a couple. The first couple looked intelligent and professional, the man with hair like the night sky and eyes a sea-blue behind a pair of glasses and the woman about a head shorter than the man and was tiny and dainty-looking. The second couple was both almost the same height, the woman with hair the colour of autumn leaves and eyes of duckweed while the man looked important but kind, with platinum hair and dark-brown eyes. Lastly, the third couple was about a little taller than the rest of the two couples, the woman with hair as long as Hermione's and was quite thin and frail, as if she would break if ever you squeeze her a little harder while the man was of African-American decent, but a hint of Caucasian in the mix.

"I suppose we owe you an introduction," the brother of the siblings finally broke the ice. "My name is Darren Hawkins and this is my sister Angelica," he gestured to the brownish-blonde girl who waved back at them, "and this is Tony Brixius," he gestured at the golden-blonde, "and these are Richard and Madhya Peverell," he gestured to the first couple, "Gilbert and Ethel Lattimer," he gestured to the second couple, "and Bernard and Tanya Gryffindor-Finnegan. We are part of a rather big family tree of the Merlin's Council."

"I hope my old coot of an ancestor Godric hasn't given you any trouble in school, Harry," Bernard chuckled humorously. "I've told him many times to return to the family but he's just too in love with the sea to care."

"Wait, wait…what?!" everyone suddenly exclaimed simultaneously in surprise, not even sure what exactly just hit them.

"Sorry, I suppose we must start from the very beginning," Gilbert guffawed at their reaction good-naturedly and took a sip of tea. "But before we start, I am sure you know at least the basics about the Grand Wizard Merlin."

"Of course," Hermione immediately went to her Human Encyclopedia mode. "He was born half-fey, created by the fey goddess Mab and birthed by a Muggle mother through a union with an incubus, thus his wizarding heritage when the Muggles and their faith began to take reign of the world, leaving their magic to naught. He had been a pioneer to all wizards and witches that exists today because of his powers and his servitude to the great King Arthur and even been heralded by Muggles who study folklore as one of the greatest characters during the Arthurian years. But sadly his infatuation for a huntress named Nimue that caused him his downfall, King Arthur his trusted counselor and his apprentices their great mentor and their dispersion."

"Ah, such a bright mind," Tanya complimented. "Perhaps it is a way for you to compensate for the lack of confidence in you trying to fit in to both worlds?"

"Well, I…I didn't mean…" Hermione, surprisingly, was not insulted by this, instead was flustered at her insecurities being read so easily.

"Oh, take it easy there, Ms. Granger," Angelica laughed. "We're not here to judge, but unfortunately, you only got the top half right."

"It is true that the Grand Wizard Merlin was born half-fey," Tony said in his quiet, mysterious way. "Because of the Muggles growing in number and population and their adoption of their religious faith, the fey goddess Mab and her sister the Lady of the Lake were losing reign on earth. Contrary to people saying that the Lady of the Lake quietly submitted to their vanishing fate, she was the one who actually helped Mab to achieve in creating the perfect half-human-half-fey entity and summoned an incubus to embed the entity within him and enchanted him into impregnating a Muggle woman named Elissa. She did not survive the birth, so they both instructed another Muggle woman named Ambrosia to take care of him until he comes of age to be taken by Mab and the Lady of the Lake to be taught the ways of magic."

"Then it's true that he had been under the service of King Arthur?" Tonks asked in interest.

"Yes, of course," Ethel replied. "He had been in service since Arthur's father King Uther's time. And as you have read in the legends, it is true that Arthur was born from a union between the Duke of Cornwall's wife and King Uther under the guise of a glamour spell, but unlike what legends say about it being Merlin's direct doing into helping him bed the Duke's wife, it was King Uther himself who somehow managed to sneak away the first generation of Polyjuice Potion from Merlin's potion stores to do so before finally slaughtering the Duke and his men, so Merlin was not entirely to blame in this. And yes, Morgan la Fay was King Arthur's half-sister and all that historical legendary jazz about them being mortal enemies and always fighting each other, and about their son Mordred born out of their incest union because Arthur didn't know any better since he was raised by Merlin after King Uther went mad with power and eventually went mad, literally. It was then after Arthur's birth that Merlin put the sword in the stone and not the popular beliefs of him putting the sword in the stone after noticing King Uther's beginning of his fall from grace."

"Thank goodness Merlin did the right thing to take custody of King Arthur after the Duke's wife died giving birth to him because Morgan la Fay was about to curse his life," Richard said. "Morgan la Fay was originally born disfigured because the Duke of Cornwall had invoked the powers of the dark beings to win his wife's heart, at the cost of his children being born to bear the stigma of his sins, but Morgan la Fay was special. With her disfigurement came the power to see past anyone and view them for what they truly are, and she knew King Uther bedded her mother under the guise of the Duke with the influence of Polyjuice Potion, and because she knew that she will have a half-sibling who will not bear the stigma as she and her siblings did, she was determined to make Arthur's life miserable by invoking the same powers her father did to curse him. If it weren't for Merlin appearing in the nick of time, we would not have King Arthur right now."

"But…what does all that have to do with what you're trying to tell us?" Draco asked.

"Patience, young Malfoy, we're getting there," Darren said, taking a bite out of his crumpet before continuing. "Well, I'm sure you know the rest of the Arthur legend, which is more or less true to the word, so I will not bore you with the details. Of course, unlike the legend that said Arthur begged Merlin in his dying breath to return Excalibur from whence it came and Merlin throwing it back to the Lady of the Lake, Merlin had kept the sword, stripping it of its power and turning it to the likes of any regular sword so that it will never again be used and misused. The sword of Godric Gryffindor is, in fact, King Arthur's sword Excalibur."

"What?!" all the adults exclaimed.

"Yup, he's right on that," Bernard grinned. "The story about the sword being goblin-made and Godric accused of stealing it is just hogwash, a tale to throw off anyone who is seeking for the legendary sword Excalibur. The last thing we want happen is to have someone gallivanting around with it and have King Arthur's bloody history repeat itself."

"But…But how…how did Godric…?" Severus was at lost of words at this piece of news.

"Ah, this brings us to the crucial part of the whole tale: the Merlin's Council," Madhya pointed. "You see, this is where Ms. Granger was only half-right. Merlin did fall in love with a Muggle huntress named Nimue who was actually a daughter of the king of Northumberland, but instead of her causing him his downfall, she was the greatest thing that ever happened in his life. It was thanks to Arthur's intervention that these two lovebirds meet, since he had fairly good relationship with the king via trade businesses. He initially took her in as his apprentice because the king wanted her to learn some magic so that she could defend herself during the hunt, but during their course of apprenticeship, they somehow ended up falling in love and got married during the prime of Arthur's kingship."

"So…" Lil voiced out. "You mean to say that the legend about Nimue disgusted by him and his heritage, then forcing him to teach her magic to give her advantage against his magic to enchant her and about her and finally casting him into a magic tomb and burying him alive…is not true?"

"I thought Arthur was the one who sentenced him to death because Merlin gave him bad advice and couldn't keep his trap shut," Ron said quizzically.

"Those are all defamation made by other countries who were jealous of Arthur having a powerful man by his side," Richard shook his head. "As we have said, Arthur died in battle and freed Merlin from his servitude while at the same time gave him the Excalibur. After Arthur's death, Merlin and Nimue took to the woods where Merlin was raised in his old home by his adopted mother Ambrosia and cast the entire area he was living in as an Unplottable. There, they lived out their lives until the end of their days while their offspring and apprentices were allowed to leave and search for their own purpose in the world with the Muggles as soon as they came of age."

"We," Angelica gestured to themselves and to Beck who had been sitting beside them quietly, "are the direct descendants of Merlin."

It took a full 10 seconds to let everything sink in before they started exclaiming in disbelief.

"Calm down, everyone, calm down," Beck said as she lit a cigarette. "No need to get so worked up about this."

"Worked up??" Sirius almost shrieked. "Worked up doesn't even cut it! How the hell is it possible that you are the direct descendants of Merlin?! I thought Merlin's bloodline had already thinned out to the point where they no longer exist!"

"Ah, this is where you are wrong," Tony noted. "We definitely exist; we just like to keep ourselves quiet. It is better this way."

"You see," Ethel began. "During that timeline when Merlin decided to live a quiet life while he let his children set their own paths in life, the dangers that Merlin had faced when he was under Arthur's servitude continued to linger in his absence. Morgan la Fay, after Mordred and Arthur killed each other, was hell bent on revenge, blaming Merlin for the cause of all this. She and a few rogue wizards and witches and some apprentices that Merlin had turned away because they were a lost cause banded together to destroy Merlin and his family. Merlin used his magic to seal away him and his family in the forest of Brocéliande with walls of air, visible as mist to others and forever hidden from the eyes of Morgan la Fay and her people."

"It was mostly thanks to her that the wizarding world got the bad rep and ended up starting all these witch hunts and whatnot," Tanya said and grimaced at the thought. "Merlin had tried to rescue as much witches and wizards as possible and hide them within Brocéliande, expanding the wizarding community and converting them to his side as he went, but the rest were met with the fate of torture, burning, drowning and the like, with the poor innocent Muggles in the tow. It was finally after the end of the Salem witch hunt that Merlin's children and family friends managed to salvage what remained of the witches and wizards that still live to survive the hunt and took them into Brocéliande, and Merlin, at that time very old and probably the longest living wizard prior to Nicholas Flamel because of his half-fey nature, used his last and final magic to create a huge barrier that would separate the wizarding world and the Muggles before breathing his last, thus the world we are living today."

"Of course, our ancestors knew that if we maintain our status as Merlin's descendants, the people will be too dependent on us and will never stand on their own two feet, so roughly a decade after Merlin's death, we went into seclusion and passed the power to an appointed figurehead whom we trust to be able to make the tough decisions and run the wizarding world to the best of their judgments and abilities. You may consider them as the first group of people who established the Ministry of Magic and the first Head Minister to run it."

"Well, we do have the very famous Artemisia Lufkin, the first witch to be Head Minister, and Grogan Stump who settled the Beings vs. Beasts classification problems," Moody went in reminiscence.

"Yes, they are very reliable people, aren't they?" Ethel smiled. "I have to agree that they were best among all the Ministers that had ever run the office by far."

"We then established the Merlin's Council," Darren continued. "We are the highest authority of the wizarding world and sent our family members as spies, working undercover amongst the members of the Ministry of Magic and its branches to watch over and monitor them, and act accordingly as we see fit and appropriate without revealing ourselves. You can say we are like the Kings and Queens of the entire wizarding world, but working behind the scenes to keep the wizarding world in proper order."

"B…Bloody hell!" Ron only managed to squeak.

"But why continue such secrecy and seclusion?" Remus asked. "Surely you have seen what the Ministry has done to this world. Should you not step in and do something about it?"

"Unfortunately we have been in seclusion for too long that frankly, we practically don't exist except within the shadows of our Grand Wizard Merlin," Madhya replied. "This world belongs to the new generation now. Yes, the trauma and tragedy of the witch hunt may have become the reason of the existence of pureblood elitists and wanting to keep their world to themselves, but it is up to them to shape the world now. We have made a blood-oath to Merlin that we will allow the youngsters to stand on their own feet and handle their own problems, and only reveal ourselves at the very dire time of their need. It is a blood-oath that is as lethal as the Unbreakable Vow. We cannot back out from it even if we wanted to. Although it is possible that our blood-oath may be relieved due to the prophecy."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked timidly.

"What we're trying to say is that," Beck took another drag of cigarette before taking Harry's hand. "Well, no matter how we wish for our own people's independence, the Ministry's action is of no excuse to hurt family."

"Huh? Wh…What do you mean?"

"If you actually paid attention, you'd noticed that Angelica gestured me as well as the direct descendants of Merlin, which makes you, my little half-cousin Har, a direct descendant of Merlin as well."

"What?!" it was now all the kids' turn to exclaim, with the exception of Harry looking at Beck blankly in disbelief.

"Here, let me illustrate this for you," Bernard accio-ed a quill and a bottle of ink that looked whitish-silver in colour. He dipped the quill into the ink and started writing on air as fluently as someone would on a whiteboard with a whiteboard marker, surprising everyone present with such an amazing new magic tool, the Weasley twins in particular. "During the seclusion and the early years of the Ministry of Magic, our family had been left down to the Peverell family, which they had Antioch, Cadmus and Ignotus Peverell. Antioch has then, because of his preference for men, had taken Artemis Gryffindor as his 'wife', and had sired a few children before he passed away from a rare disease after mishandling dragon's hide, thus his children taking Artemis' last name instead at the event of his death. Eleanor Ravenclaw had been promised to Cadmus since birth as a sign of gratitude from the Ravenclaws who were the first group of people whom Merlin had saved from the witch hunt, but the Ravenclaws are a matriarchal family, so all his children then took on Eleanor's last name. Richard is descended directly from Ignotus even after many generations because of Ignotus' tendency to bear sons instead of daughters, thus the Peverell surname, while his wife Madhya is descended from the Hufflepuff family who had married and branched out within the Slytherin family, and the Slytherin family came from a marriage between one of Artemis Gryffindor's sons who inherited Antioch's preference for men to Gavin Slytherin, the last living Slytherin at that time to be rescued by Merlin during the Salem Witch Hunt."

"So, in other words, the famous four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin are also our direct descendants of Merlin!" Darren announced almost amusingly.

"What the…How the…" Even the know-it-all Hermione was at loss of words.

"Godric was never really fond of settling down," Bernard rolled his eyes. "But he did leave behind a few heirs, which then slowly branched out until only my side of the family still carried on the Gryffindor family name, though mostly likely be left to me since I'm the only son born out of daughters by my parents the Gryffindor-Finnegan—take a wild guess at who's the 'pants' in the relationship," he laughed at that joke, "and one of the heirs somehow ended up being married into the Potter family, which were well-known back at their time for their long-line of Quidditch players. The Evans, on the other hand, were a small branch out when one of the Ravenclaw predecessors married into the Evans family, and it was almost pure coincidence that your father James married your mother Lily which eventually united the Merlin bloodline again."

"And since I am your mother's half-brother's daughter, that makes me a descendant of Merlin too," Beck replied as she finished her cigarette and put it out.

"We usually wait until our family members come of age before we reveal our lineage to them and take them into the Merlin's Council family tree," Tony said as he poured himself another cup of tea. "But in this case, we'd make it an exception, as do we to you all, since you have been into this Ministry scandal so deep and had been with Harry through thick and thin, oh, and you too," he gestured to Severus, "since you're going to take Harry as your 'wife'. You are taking him as his 'wife', right?"

"Of course," Severus nodded, holding Harry's hand. "I will wed no one else."

"Good lad!" Gilbert guffawed again. "We knew you were the perfect man for Harry from the moment we found out about you."

"You…You have…?"

"Of course we have! Harry may be a branch out of the family tree, but he is still family no less, and we look out for our family, even if it is from afar. Although we're sorry that we couldn't extend that any further down to the Muggle world, since we were supposed to be in seclusion and all."

"It's alright," Harry smiled. "It's not your fault anyway."

"I was taken in as soon as I graduated from Salem's Academy and revealed of my lineage as Rowena Ravenclaw's descendant and subsequently Merlin's descendant," Beck explained. "Then when they told me about the Potters who are also descended from Godric Gryffindor and subsequently Merlin as well, I immediately remembered you, Har, because of my father telling me about you and your mother. After that, I was always in a lookout for you while working as a spy under the guise of an Auror within the Ministry of Magic to monitor them. I soon knew about you being a slave and all after I heard about the meeting Severus had with the Ministry members and Harry's ownership switching hands to Albus, and from there, I try to keep an eye on you whenever I could. After I learnt about the prophecy and about Lil and Voldemort and all the hullabaloo whatnot, I quickly realized that it was a matter that we cannot just sit by idly and watch you fight a losing battle. We knew we had to step out for this, although we covered our tracks pretty well after that so as not to let it lead to us."

"Although, of course, this may sound a little awkward but that guy—Voldemort, you call him?—he's actually descended from Salazar Slytherin."

"WHAT?!" everyone exclaimed, causing the twins to wake up and wail in shock, and Draco and Remus hushed them back to sleep before the Merlin's Council continued the story.

"Salazar Slytherin had always been known to be quite a loner and a little anti-social," Ethel lamented. "He somehow ended up being one of the pureblood elitists because of the trauma of his family history of being in the witch hunt. The Slytherin family, after a family disagreement, stripped off their namesake as a Slytherin-Gryffindor to be only Slytherin, thus breaking the lineage of his relation with the Gryffindors but not with the Merlin's Council, and was dying out because of their refusal to marry or be married to anyone outside the family, with the exception of a few that they had disowned because they decided to be married into the Hufflepuff family. Before he knew it, he realized he was the last living Slytherin, just like his ancestor Gavin Slytherin before he was married to Artemis Gryffindor's son. He had to swallow his pride and marry someone outside the family, but he carefully selected someone who was still very pure of blood to do so."

"And of all people he had to marry," Darren rolled his eyes in defeat, "he had to marry the Gaunts. The Gaunts were some of the very few last living pureblood wizards and witches that have been under the influence of Morgan la Fay and possible related to Mordred asd he had been rumoured to sire some heirs prior to his death by Arthur. They somehow managed to survive the witch hunt by hiding and living underground. And, yes, it's true that the Gaunts have been heralded back in the old days for being one of the many hired assassins and wizard mercenaries during the days after Merlin retired and Morgan la Fay stepped in control and gave us the bloody bad rep. During the witch hunt, they managed to hide underground like Muggles would in a bomb shelter, still believing that they were being targeted after so many centuries had passed. Salazar managed to locate them and coaxed them out, taking them under his wing and into his family, and thus, his lineage managed to continue."

"You can say, in Muggles' terms, that the Gaunts were like the Holocaust survivors," Beck grinned.

"The Gaunts soon were brought up to accept the ideology of marrying only within the family," Angelica continued as she took over drawing the family tree. "And despite some who are born a little off in the head and maybe disfigured due to the inbreeding, the rest were probably more or less fine, as long as it is within the family. Finally the Gaunts became the main family as the Slytherin name—but not the bloodline—died out, but because of that close-minded ideology, they were also slowly suffering the same fate as Salazar of dying out. There have been a few minorities of the Gaunts who knew their ideology was wrong and decided to disown themselves from the family to be married into the Peverell family, but the rest continued to uphold Salazar's legacy."

"The last of the Gaunts," Gilbert cut in, "was Marvolo Gaunt, and he only had two children: a son Morfin Gaunt and a daughter Merope Gaunt before his wife died of childbirth when she was pregnant with their third child and the child was stillborn. Morfin, sadly, inherited the stigma of inbreeding, rendering him incapable of using his magic without causing grave damage, while Merope ended up becoming a late bloomer in magic because of the inbreeding and Marvolo believed her to be born a Squib. The rest, well, you pretty much know what happened to her and her son Voldemort."

"Then why did you not try to locate her?" Moody asked. "Take her in, rehabilitate her, or even take custody of Voldemort instead?"

"We tried to," Bernard said sadly. "We really did. We have tried everything we could to locate the Gaunts, but Salazar had somehow learnt the magic Merlin did to shield us away from sight as Merlin did to hide away from Morgan la Fay. By the time we realized the Gaunts existed after one of the disowned Gaunt family member who married into the Peverell family revealed it, Merope was already been given the Dementor's Kiss after giving birth to Voldemort and our seclusion restricts our jurisdiction beyond the wizarding world. And that travelling warlock was not making our tracking any easier to find Voldemort before the Ministry did. When we heard of the warlock's death, we knew it was too late for us to try and rehabilitate Voldemort, as murder in cold blood sanctioned the Merlin's Council's authority to exile him. And when he killed Lillian, it was even more unforgivable."

"W…What do you mean…?" Lil asked as her name was being mentioned.

"Get this, Lil," Beck said as she turned to her. "You've been wondering who had brought you back to life, right? Well," she gestured at Madhya, "you're looking at her."

Lil stared in shock as Madhya came up to her and took her hands.

"Lil, dear, you may not know it, but you and the Rome family are a branch out from the Hufflepuff family, which means you, too, are a direct descendant of Merlin."

"I…I…Wh…What…? It…It can't be…" Lil stammered. "M…My parents never said anything…"

"They were supposed to tell you once you come of age," Madhya sighed sadly. "But they never got the chance because Voldemort came in to kill you and your family. When we found out about it, we knew there is no way we could let your death go un-avenged, and to be killed by family was even more unforgivable. It is a crime of our highest authority, and within our laws, it has to be an eye for an eye. The Ministry had hastened your funeral by cremating you along with your family and scattered your ashes to the seas before we could even have the chance to identify your bodies, because it was Voldemort's first kill which was sloppy and almost connected it to them. My family had spent the last 50 years trying to locate your soul and I managed to finally find you and invoke the Forbidden Magic to bring you back to life so you could execute the sentence on Voldemort, as the Merlin's Council dictates it should."

"Then me waking up in Shrieking Shack…and meeting Beck…it wasn't a coincidence…?"

"I was actually requested to be there to wait for you," Beck replied. "I wasn't allowed to approach the Shrieking Shack to wake you up. It is to maintain the illusion from the Ministry that Merlin's Council does not exist and that no ties led to us."

"So…does that mean…once I execute the sentence…I…I cease to exist?"

"That is how the Forbidden Magic works, yes," Madhya nodded.

"Which brings us now to our current situation," Richard got down to business. "At the moment, we have kept Voldemort down at the dungeons in our mansion and held back by our strongest wards. Now that we have revealed our lineage and are prepared to accept Harry and Severus into our family, we now must implore to the rest of you that you will not reveal any of what we had said to a single soul. Everything we have said stays within this room."

"But…But this…how can we…?" Ron wanted to protest but was met with a singular stern look from the group and Beck.

"We have kept this secret for many centuries now, working behind the scenes and maintaining this balance as we see fit for the wizarding world. The time will come for us to be revealed once the prophecy has been fulfilled, but for now, please keep this amongst yourselves, or, as much as I hate to say this, you will be silenced."

Everyone looked at each other a little hesitantly for a few long minutes before giving each other a "What do we have to lose?" eye contact and nodded in agreement.

"But…my child has died…" Harry said sadly. "The prophecy will never come true now."

"Yeah," Draco agreed. "And I have twins, not one child. Didn't the prophecy state that…?"

"Ah, yes, about that," Gilbert noted and gestured for the butler to bring them "the paperwork". When the butler came back with it, he displayed it on the table and showed them, "The prophecy is usually only meant for the prophesied people, but since you guys are already here and know a whole lot, we might as well give it all we've got."

The paperwork revealed pictures of Harry and Severus carrying a baby in their arms and of Draco carrying one baby before Remus came into view with another baby in his arms. They were slightly fuzzy, like something that was a little bit out of focus, but there was no mistaking that it was their faces on the pictures, just as Beck said it was. Records of the Seer's vision and her name, time and date of prophecy made were written on a couple of papyrus sheets, while the main prophecy was written in an ink that shimmered in and out between silver and gold under the light on another piece of papyrus sheet of the finest quality, and this was what it was written:

In the near future, in the midst of bloodbath and sea of tears, will rise a child of the light and the child of dark that will unite the Muggles and wizards into a prosperous new age in which both nations will co-exist as one, as it was during the time of the Grand Wizard Merlin, who was born of fey from the lands of Old. The child of the light will be birthed as a firstborn son to a boy who descends from a family who have dedicated their lives to the Light, and shall be sired by a man who will have lived through the torments of the harsh reality of the prejudice but continues to retain his soul of the Light. The child of dark will be birthed as a firstborn daughter of two halves of a soul to a boy who descends from a family who have dedicated their lives to the Dark, and shall be sired by a man who will suffer the wrath of the wretched creatures of the Dark side. Together, the child of the light and the child of dark will guide the way for the wizards and open the eyes of the Muggles before leading them to a bright future

So it is said, so it shall be done.

Child of Light:

Mother-Harry James Potter

Father-Severus Snape

Child of Dark:

Mother-Draco Malfoy

Father-Remus John Lupin

"So you see, Harry," Gilbert said as he pointed at the prophecy. "Your child will be a firstborn son. Your child that you have lost was a girl, was it not? So you don't have to worry, though still, my condolences. And you, Draco, your child will be a firstborn daughter of two halves of a soul. In the old context, twins are basically a person's soul split into half, and it applies to identical twins. Fraternal twins are considered a person with two separate souls. Your little girls are identical twins, right? So technically you have already fulfilled your part of the prophecy. So all we need to wait for Harry to do it, no rush, of course."

Harry looked up at Severus with a smile, in which the latter smiled back and kissed his forehead, rubbing his back to ease him. Ron looked up at his twin brothers and grinned, while the Weasley twins looked at each other in fascination at the thought they were actually a soul split in half.

"That said, I would like you to go to the dungeons to carry out the sentence," Tony said as he stood up. "And this time, only family."

--:--

"Ah, I see you've brought my VIP guest here."

Harry held Severus' hand tight as he was gently ushered along with Lil by the group to enter the dungeon cell he was in. Voldemort was held suspended in the middle of the cell with something that looked like fine spider webs, but was tough as piano strings as it almost cut through Voldemort's skin. Severus gave a reassuring squeeze before letting the boy join Lil to walk up front to the monster.

"Voldemort, or should I say Tom Marvolo Riddle," Richard said as he approached him. "You know by the sight of Harry James Potter and Lillian Rome what awaits your fate."

"Heh, figures," Voldemort turned to the magical device that was hung at one of the bars of the cell. "After what you bombard to me through the listening device when you had your little discussion and tea party upstairs, how could I not?"

"Then you understand that you have broken the most sacred of the family code," Tony said. "You have killed the Rome and the Potter family in addition to Lily Evans of the Evans family, all of them directly descended from the Merlin's Council. The punishment for killing family is death by the hand of the member of the family you killed."

"I didn't know any better!" Voldemort roared. "It's not exactly my fault! You know how I was brought up! You know what had happened to me that led me into this! If anyone was to blame, it is you!"

"We agree," Tanya said quietly. "And we hold ourselves accountable for our mistakes that we have done. It was our mistake that created you into who you are, and we shall rectify that mistake."

"By killing me?! What kind of justice is this?!" Voldemort turned to Harry. "You wouldn't kill family now, would you, Harry boy? After all, we did have some good times together. You enjoyed it too, remember…"

"Shut up!" Harry snapped at him. "That is not true! You took advantage of me and killed my family, and you killed Grandpa Albus, the only parent I had left, and it's your fault my baby Star is dead!! You're no family of mine!!"

"You know what to do," Bernard said as he produced the sword of Godric Gryffindor—the fabled Excalibur—and handed it to Lil, in which the girl took it and faced Voldemort.

"I should make you suffer for what you have done to me and my family," Lil said venomously at Voldemort. "But you're pathetic right now. You're not even worth my time."

So saying, she raised the sword and stabbed it through Voldemort's gut, his dark red blood—close to black—sprayed onto her. She did it a few more time before finally embedding it into his heart, her body almost bathed in his blood. Watching Voldemort looking back at her in frozen horror, she smiled in satisfaction as she held onto the sword in place, staring Voldemort down until her body slowly dissolved into ashes that immediately vanished into thin air. Harry watched as she disappeared before everyone's eyes before taking hold of the sword and pulled it out, watching in disgust as Voldemort tried to cling on the last thread of his life.

"This is for everything you have done to me, raping me, killing my family, Grandpa Albus, Star…everything."

With a loud yell of vengeance, he swung the sword, and the last thing he remembered before blacking out was Voldemort's head that fell at his feet.