(Enchanting Melodies) Chapter 391: A Delightful Radiance

Chapter 391: A Delightful Radiance

3 May 1995, London

But no attack came, and instead, a very familiar figure entered the room, speaking in a fake kindly voice, “Now, now, young Harry. Is that a way to talk to your guests?”

“Albus Dumbledore,” the last Potter retorted, “How’s the boyfriend? Lily’s last attack must have done a number on him.”

The former headmaster stood there and gave him a very condescending look, “He’s doing well enough. You made quite the team, you and your mother. Well, more like you and your former mother. She’s not around anymore, is she? Gellert made the mistake of underestimating you both. I will do no such thing.”

“So, you’re here to fight, then.”

“You’re always so quick to respond with violence, my boy,” Dumbledore responded while shaking his head, “I think it’s why you became too much of a nuisance to be beneficial for our world order. You had so much potential to be useful. So much promise, wasted because of your short-sightedness. Your existence has no purpose, not anymore, at least.”

“What gives you the right to decide what my purpose is supposed to be?” Harry asked, more confused than anything.

“It is not a right, but a burden,” the former headmaster stated with absolute conviction, “You, Harry, embody a chaos that threatens everything we’ve meticulously built. The fate of the entire world is lying on a knife’s edge and your actions, your very presence, disrupt the equilibrium necessary for us to maintain the balance, to ensure the survival of our people. Sometimes, sacrifices must be made for the greater good.”

Harry suppressed the urge to scoff at that. It was so much like Dumbledore to say to someone that they must die for some vague plan while trying to sound like he didn’t enjoy them. It was like the man didn’t even see anyone other than him and Grindelwald as living beings, just some characters in a play, pawns in a game of chess, that he directed for his own purpose.

A small plan bloomed in Harry’s mind, maybe it wouldn’t work, but he was quickly running out of options. He could feel Dumbledore’s authority stopping any form of space manipulation, which already blocked a lot of Harry’s potential escape plans. His progress in space magic must not have gone unnoticed. Harry could technically break it, but it would need a lot of concentration, meaning that the old man would have more than enough time to kill him easily. Or he could just reinforce it before Harry could make a portal. He had to find another way to escape.

Harry wasn’t under the delusion that he’d win a fair fight against the man. After all, the former headmaster defeated Grindelwald, and the Dark Lord almost killed Harry back on Olympus.

If he had time to prepare a bit, maybe he could have bridged the gap enough to make whatever Dumbledore was planning a pyrrhic victory for the man which would get him to stand down. It was the best way to deal with the former headmaster. Make him lose more by fighting you than he would ever gain by killing you. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the luxury of preparation.

No, this wasn’t the time to be pessimistic. Harry slowed down his perception of time to realize what he had to work with. Lupin and the other Lycans were less than useless. By far, the only true threat was Dumbledore himself. He didn’t really have anyone to contact that could really help against Dumbledore. Maybe if Lily was still alive, she could have made a difference.

Harry kept analysing his position, only to finally find something that could help. The farm stood right underneath a ley line. It was a bit deep and definitely hadn’t been used in a long time, so it would be difficult to access. However, it gave him options and a plan bloomed in Harry’s mind. It could work, but it would be risky.

Now, onto how to buy time to implement the plan. Dumbledore had shown time and time again that he liked to talk before a fight. He liked to get people to see his point, even if he was planning on killing them. That would be a nice distraction and thankfully, Harry had the perfect tool for the job, something that the former headmaster didn’t know was in his possession, the resurrection stone.

His mastery over the stone’s power did increase immensely and combining it with his Arcane Hearing made him see into Dumbledore’s very soul. Normally, he could get a close understanding of how people clicked with the way their magic acted, but Dumbledore’s magic was unbending, unyielding. He was the champion of Light after all. And yet, his soul didn’t have that luxury.

It wasn’t an exact science and Dumbledore’s soul was also protected by the unbending power of the Light, but there had to be some individuality, some pressure points he could push, that would make Dumbledore distracted, make him try to protest as much as possible. And by letting his divination guide him, a small clear path started to appear, glow in his mind.

People really underestimated mind-related magics. Sure, the combination was very straining, and it definitely gave Harry a headache, but he could see a path to victory, and he would walk that path as if his life depended on it because it likely did.

Following his instincts, Harry grinned and spoke up, “You know, this right there is why I can never come to respect you. At least, Grindelwald was direct. He said that he had a plan, that my presence was disruptive, and that he wanted to kill me for it. He didn’t try to twist the situation to make himself look like a good man because he knows he’s not. However, the way you act like you’re reluctant, that every atrocity you ever did was just a necessary sacrifice, it disgusts me in a way that I just can’t even put into words. You’re attempting to fool everyone, maybe even yourself that you’re above it all, that you’re forced into doing this. But you’re not, are you? Because doing it once or twice, might be a reluctant action, but I doubt you even know how many lives you sacrificed so callously, how many widows and orphans you created in your negligence. How many futures did you destroy, in your chase of this greater good? Did you even mourn the people you killed in Greece? They were students, children, and you killed them.”

The former headmaster was getting angrier by the minute but kept a lid on it. It wasn’t fooling Harry though. He could feel it with his Arcane Hearing, the little crack that was growing, the wound that Harry kept scratching at.

Of course, ever the experienced politician, Dumbledore answered calmly, “I have to admit that I’m disappointed. I expected someone like you to understand, to see the bigger picture. For every victim of my actions, there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of people, who had better lives for it. The children’s death is a tragedy, but the ritual was necessary.”

Harry shook his head and chuckled bitterly, “You really don’t get it, do you? You have to be the hero, don’t you? Look at what you’ve become. Look at these Lycans. Do you think a good man would ever do that, enslave them for no reason? Is that what you wanted to grow up becoming?”

“Of course not,” Dumbledore answered with a bit of heat in his voice, “Do you think I wished to be what I was? I wished to create without war, without violence, and I failed, because of you. Now, the future of our world hangs in the balance and I will not let some fools with delusions of grandeur, jeopardise it.”

“By killing me?”

“Yes,” the man retorted heatedly.

Harry then went for the kill. He found it, the little breakpoint, the grief, the disappointment, the self-loathing. As much as Dumbledore liked to justify it to himself, he really thought of himself as a hero. He thought that he was right, and while the Light’s influence warped his perception, the atrocities he committed, the people he killed, still haunted him, deep down into his soul, and Harry was bringing them to light. It wasn’t even

Harry continued, “Just like you killed Nicholas Flamel and Perenelle Flamel? Just like you killed the Red Witch? Just like you killed Cedric Diggory. You sent a boy to his death, knowing perfectly well what would happen. I wonder if your family would ever be proud of you if they had lived that is. Well, Aberforth is a good way to measure that, huh?”

“Do you think I don’t regret doing any of this? Nicholas was my mentor; he was like a father to me. Lily
”

Oh, he just realized what Harry had done. It must have been the growling from his new pawns that let him know that he just revealed that he had something to do with their queen’s death.

The young wizard had kept digging and digging, poking his insecurities. This was the power of the resurrection stone. Truly understanding someone’s soul, everything that made them, well, themselves, was beyond dangerous.

He could see Dumbledore bare. It wasn’t really like reading his mind but realizing their deeper emotions and how they relate. That was Dumbledore’s core, the thing that the Light couldn’t really subsume, not without him becoming an Avatar, a glorified puppet, and being killed by the restriction that the gods put in place when the Light and Dark were banished aeons prior.

Dumbledore was, in his heart, a stern idealist. He was, without a doubt, the hero in his story, the man who would take the world’s burden to make it a better place, and who ignored every wrongdoing he ever did. After all, he had a justification. He was also proud. Not of his magical ability, not really, but of his intentions, of the picture of himself he had built in his mind. He needed everyone to also know that he wasn’t the ‘bad guy’. He wanted everyone, even his enemies, to acknowledge, to give him their blessing, and if they didn’t, then they just didn’t see the bigger picture, the good he would do with their sacrifice.

Mixing that with his divination, letting it guide him to each pressure point, made things simple, and prevented him from reacting violently while keeping him talking for as long as possible, while Harry readied his plan. Dumbledore’s very nature made him prone to talking, to justify his own actions.

As the Lycans prepared to attack Dumbledore, the former headmaster chuckled and spoke up, “And freeze.”

The Light-enhanced Lycans froze in their places, and the man gave Harry a very smug look, “That was very clever. Very clever indeed, getting my new friends to attack me. But did you seriously not think that I wouldn’t ensure their loyalty to me? Your mother was truly an ingenious witch. The loyalty she carved deep in their own blood is very impressive and absolute. Unfortunately for you, with no one to fill the role, it became very easy to hijack. They were so desperate for direction after what Arcturus did to their brethren and I was very kind to oblige them. They have no more chance of rebelling against me, than they did rebelling against Lily.”

That seemed to make the remaining Lycans stiffen in panic, before running away. Harry gave Lupin a discreet nod before he left with them as well, appearing as if he’d run away as well.

Dumbledore rolled his eyes, “Go get them. I’ll deal with the boy myself.”

Most of the light-enhanced Lycans followed their new master’s lead and ran very quickly to pursue their former brothers and sisters, but a few remained behind.

However, Harry stood there confidently, “When have you ever been able to handle me, Albus?”

“My boy, so far, you’ve only survived because of my kindness. You will not have this luxury anymore. I don’t usually enjoy hurting people. It was always for the greater good, you see, even if it was distasteful. But I’ll say this. What I’ll do to you is something that I will enjoy very dearly.”

As quick as lightning, Dumbledore raised his wand and released a beam of white light at Harry. However, the young boy didn’t seem bothered. Instead, he grinned, and redirected the magic down to his feet, specifically, where hundreds of small, almost imperceptible runes lit up, quickly making a connection to the previously untapped ley lines.

Like a dam being opened, energy was released from the ground and tried to smite Dumbledore. The remaining Light-enhanced Lycans were vaporized. Hell, even the farm became nothing more than a crater, while Harry remained completely unharmed.

The headmaster had obviously been able to shield himself from the blast, but he knelt from the sheer release of energy. It might also be the gigantic ward that Harry powered up. He had used it before, even if it was a lot less powerful. It was the pulse of magic that disrupted connections to outside dimensions. This time, it wasn’t powered by Harry’s magic, but by an entire constant stream of ley lines.

This would weaken Dumbledore’s connection to the Light drastically. He didn’t know how much it would be, but it was better than nothing. From the way Dumbledore glared at him, it had to be a lot. Harry’s original plan was to just portal away, using the release as a distraction and escape. However seeing the power of the ley lines, he thought to try something he’d been thinking about in a while. Even if it hadn’t worked, it should have disrupted Dumbledore’s authority over space manipulation, allowing him to leave.

But this
 This had potential. This was the weakest Dumbledore had ever been before, and Harry had every intention of capitalizing.

Harry pointed his wand at the man smugly and spoke up, “What was that about handling me again?”

And just like that, the duel began anew.

AN: I’ll be honest here, I’m not sure about this chapter. I had something else in mind but that didn’t really work out, so I had to rewrite this from scratch in a bit of a hurry, and I didn’t have the time to edit it properly. As usual, please let me know what you think, if you think I should rewrite it, and if you have any suggestions.