Chapter 22: The Years' End

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Hogwarts Hospital Wing - Day

A painting... of an injured soldier lying in a hospital bed. A nurse enters the frame, begins to tend to his dressings as Harry awakens in a hospital bed of his own. On the table next to him, treats are piled high, including a raft of open Wizard Cards. In one, Dumbledore beams down. "Good afternoon, Harry." Harry squints, as if the card itself had spoken to him, then sees that the real Dumbledore is sitting on the windowsill. The great wizard slides off, gestures to the treats. "Tokens from your admirers."

"He's okay." Lily whispered as she leaned back into James' chest, happy that their son was okay.

"Admirers?" Harry asks.

"What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret - so naturally the whole school knows. Your friend Ronald has saved you the trouble of opening your chocolate frogs. Though one suspects Agrippa and Ptolemy still elude him."

"Now, that's just wrong. You do not open someone else's gifts unless they've said you can. Clearly, your parents never taught you manners." Lucius said, looking Ron up and down.

"Ron was here? Is he all right? What about Hermione..." Harry asks.

"Fine. Both of them. Madame Pomfrey has explicitly forbidden visitors. But I think - with the help of a certain cloak - they've managed to monitor your progress." Dumbledore tells him.

"But what happened to the..." Harry goes to ask but Dumbledore stops him.

"Relax, dear boy. The Stone has been destroyed. My friend Nicholas and I had a little chat and agreed it was best all around."

"Nicholas had the actual stone this whole time. Dumbledore destroyed a fake version. Do you think he actually told him that he was destroying the stone?" Regulus asked.

"I sent another letter to Nicholas after we left Hogwarts. He told me that Dumbledore never contacted him about destroying the stone. So, Dumbledore essentially killed his friend without even telling him. Nicholas thanked me after for saving the stone before Dumbledore could destroy it." Zoe answered.

"But then, Flamel... he'll die, won't he?" Harry asks.

"He has enough Elixir to set his affairs in order. But, yes, he will die. To one as young as you, I'm sure it seems incredible. But to the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure."

"But to destroy such a remarkable thing..."

"Yes yes. As much money and life as, one could ever want - the two things most human beings would choose above all else. Unfortunately, humans do have a knack for choosing precisely those things that are worst for them."

"How is it I got the Stone, sir? One minute I was staring in the Mirror..." Harry asks.

"Ah. You see, only a person who wanted to find the Stone - find it, but not use it - would be able to get it. one of my more brilliant ideas and, between you and me, that's saying something." Dumbledore says.

"Does that mean - that with the Stone gone, that is - that Voldemort can never come back?" Harry asks.

"I'm afraid there are other ways for him for return. And when - if - he does, it will take someone willing to fight a losing battle to stop him again. Someone like your parents. Someone like you."

Harry looks troubled. "Professor Dumbledore. Voldemort said... if I gave him the Stone, he could bring back my... family. Could he have, sir? Really?"

"He couldn't do that Harry. No one can escape death." Zoe told him.

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