green flames erupted in the fireplace of 12 grimmauld place transporting harry and zenith to a dark, dusty place, borgins and burkes. zenith held his hand out for harry who was still lying on the floor.

"thanks." harry breathed out, getting up on his feet while swatting the dirt off his clothes. the two young man looked around the dusty shop which looked like it had been abandoned.

to harry the place was familiar as he had accidentally arrived at knockturn alley instead of diagon alley.

"come on." zenith gestured harry to follow him out of the dusty room they were standing in. they walked to the counter where a stooping man with oliy hair was sitting. he immediately got up when he spotted the two young men. 

"how can i help you young man -- oh mr.potter." the sudden hesitancy in his voice was clearly audible,"how may i help you?"

"we wa-" zenith couldn't even complete his sentence before mr.borgin interrupted him. 

"if you don't mind me asking, who are you young lad?" without waiting for an answer he continued,"and just wanted to inform you two that i don't sell any stuff. if you want to get rid of any dark stuff you have in your possession i can buy it."

"i am zenith." the curly haired man answered the old man's question before continuing,"and we aren't here to buy or sell anything. we just need a little bit of your help."

the old man gave a curt nod of acknowledgement, slightly frightened about what could they have to ask him for help. 

"years before fleamont potter bought this pendant." harry held up the pendant for mr.borgin to see and placed it on the counter causing the old man to slightly back away from them,"am i right?"

the terror and fear visible on mr.borgin's face made harry and zenith share a worried look.
"yes i remember. a young boy who introduced himself as fleamont potter bought this from my shop. his friends were waiting outside for him and it looked like fleamont had no choice rather than buying something. he was quite confused at the start but later he decided to buy this pendant." mr.borgin explained. 

"do you remember who sold this pendant to you?" zenith questioned further causing an anxious look to dawn upon the old man's face. 

"we beg you to help us please." harry pressed when mr.borgin spoke nothing. 

"nobody sold it to me. i found it lying in the street outside. it looked quite attractive back then, no doubt and that's why i put it on display." mr.borgin admitted,"this weirdly caught his attention."

"you mean voldemort?" zenith raised one of his eyebrows, leaning on the counter. 

"yes, the young tom riddle. a charming boy he was but with a dark soul." mr.borgin spoke, his eyes turning it's darkest shade. 

"can you explain, i mean what's so peculiar about it?" harry asked. 

"he. . . " the way mr.borgin hesitated harry knew something was wrong,"he kind of tried to possess it. i don't know how exactly to explain but he. . . " mr. borgin wiped the sweat off his forehead and swallowed the huge lump forming in his throat,"i saw him killing my brother." mr. burgin stopped abruptly, tears forming in his eyes but he blinked them away,"fearing that he might hurt me, i pretended i didn't see anything. i was vulnerable. i knew i couldn't take revenge. unexpectedly tom decided to leave the shop and what surprised me even more was that he didn't even take the pendant with him."

zenith and harry kept quiet for a moment. 

"that's all?" zenith broke the frustrating tension, holding the pendant in his hand. 

"that's all i know." mr. burgin corrected giving a small smile so that it doesn't sounds rude. 

"er okay, thanks." zenith smiled, holding his hand out for mr.burgin to shake who looked quite surprised but nevertheless made a move for the handshake. 

"i am still confused." harry frowned once they were out of the shop and in the streets of knockturn alley. 

"to be honest, i think i have cracked this mystery." zenith admitted causing harry to stare at him in utter shock. 

"explain?"

"look at this." said zenith, flipping the pendant around and pointed at the faded initails etched on the metal surface,"L.P."

"what does that stand for?" harry questioned. 

"it stands for potter, dumbledore told me. that means that this pendant belonged to your family harry." zenith nodded,"and before that it was owned by the peverell brothers. now, i hope you've heard about them."

"yes." harry gave a slight nod, the look of confusion still lingering on his face,"i don't get it."

"it belonged to the peverell family harry. of course voldemort might have thought of it to be as powerful as the other three hallows and that is why-"

"he turned it into a horcrux by killing mr. borgin's brother!" harry exclaimed, showing his ravenclaw side for the first time. 

"exactly." 

"so is it cursed?" harry whispered. 

"not sure-"

zenith was interrupted by a loud, deafening scream reaching his ears accompanied by sound of spells and shouts. 

"what's that?" he frowned, turning to look at harry who had the same confused face as him. 

"let's go and see." harry suggested, hurrying towards the source of the sound which seemed to be coming from the diagon alley. 

the sight before zenith was horrifying. a group of wizards dressed in black robes were shooting spells at the shops which had a hard time to get back up after the disastrous second wizarding world war.

"holy shit." zenith breathed out, coming to a halt besides harry who was too stunned to act. a certain young man with dark brown hair and that familiar mole on the right side of his chin caught zenith's attention even amidst the swarm of people. his knees felt weak and his throat went dry. 

harry pulled out his wand to help the innocent people when zenith pulled him back by his wrist. 

"we need to leave." zenith breathed out, his eyes fixed on him. 

"we need to help them, what's wrong with you?" harry frowned, trying hard to get out of zenith's grip but he just made it tighter. 

"I SAID WE NEED TO LEAVE." zenith yelled, his eyes turning in a grey shade resembling dark, grey clouds completely dissolving the bluish tint. 

harry, startled by the sudden outburst stared at him for a moment trying to comprehend the reason the man was stopping him from helping others but before he could reach the answer, he found himself back in front of the 12 grimmauld place. 

"why did you do that?" harry shouted, running behind zenith who furiously made his way inside the house of black startling aurelia and theodore who were busy laughing at something while baking a pie.

the sound of slamming of the door rung in the whole house causing the couple to walk out in the long hallway where harry stood alone with a 'what the hell' look on his face. 

"what was that?" theodore asked, glancing upstairs before returning his gaze back to harry. 

"trust me, i have no idea." harry frowned,"he's one of the most unpredictable man i have ever met."

"zenith?" aurelia asked even when it was obvious, earning a frustrated nod from harry.

"but weren't you two at knockturn alley?" theodore questioned, making way for harry so that he could enter the drawing room. 

"we were." harry nodded,"we came to an encounter with these, i don't know how to describe, weird people. dressed in black robes and attacking people."

"is he back?" aurelia whispered, her eyes wide in horror as she stopped in front of harry who took a seat on the chair. 

"don't be stupid, that's not possible." harry disagreed. 

"so should we just leave him alone for the time being?" theodore suggested earning a slight nod of agreement from the twins.

"ginny wrote to me saying that everybody will be here in few hours." aurelia spoke up out of nowhere causing a wide smile to spread on harry's lips, the zenith incident completely slipping out of his head. the twins had decided to celebrate their 18th birthday with some of their close friends in a way as to thank them for all their help and support. 

the entire afternoon aurelia watched and heard harry & theodore scolding her for roaming around by giving the excuse of preparing the treat. all this time zenith kept himself locked up in his room which was worrying aurelia a lot. theodore entered aurelia's room to find the young witch standing in front of the mirror while braiding her long hair. 

"they are here." theodore informed, standing behind aurelia who sucked a breath before turning to look at theodore who was dressed in a white shirt with black trousers. 

"i am nervous." aurelia admitted, meeting theodore's questioning eyes. 

"what for?"

"what if they'll hate me?" aurelia whispered, glancing once at her stomach,"what if they get upset that i never told them before? what if they say that i'm too young to take up the responsibility. they'll hate me theodore."

"they'll not." theodore shook his head, keeping his hand on aurelia's shoulders,"they are your family. they love you. i am sure they'll understand. just don't worry."

aurelia took a deep breath, her palms getting sweaty which she wiped on her sky blue, knee length dress before giving a slight nod. 

she made her way towards the door, her tensed muscles immediately relaxing when theodore placed his hand on her back to lead the way. 

"where is aurelia -- oh there she. . . " molly weasley abruptly came to a stop causing everyone else to turn their attention to the young couple standing by the door. the baby bump caught everybody's attention making their eyes go wide and jaws dropped in surprise. 

"aurelia are you. . " ginny struggled to speak. 

"yeah, she's expecting." luna spoke up with an amusing smile on her face causing everybody to stare at her for a while. 

"what? when?" ron frowned, his gaze meddling between aurelia and luna. 

"it's been almost five months. nearly six." aurelia gulped , feeling extremely anxious with the shocked stares. molly weasley left her seat and walked up to aurelia who was almost in tears. molly pulled the young witch in a hug who broke down sobbing profusely while the plump woman rubbed her back in comfort. 

"it's alright darling." molly said before pulling away and kissed aurelia's forehead,"we're happy for you." 

aurelia was over the moon when she received smiles from everybody else in the room. susan and hannah were squealing in delight, luna and hermione were congratulating aurelia while george was busy teasing theodore who looked flustered. harry felt extremely good when he saw everybody smiling after what felt like years. 

once everybody had settled back on their places, aurelia decided to introduce them to zenith.
"uh i want you all to meet someone." aurelia beamed causing everybody to give an acknowledging nod,"just a moment."

aurelia exited the room and made her way towards the stair before calling zenith's name several times but got silence in response. sighing, aurelia climbed the stairs with much difficulty making sure not to trip and hurt herself. she knocked on the door for a few times before it was finally opened, revealing a sleepy zenith stifling back a yawn. 

"oh aurelia." he smiled nervously, scratching the back of his neck. 

"are you okay?" aurelia questioned when she noticed zenith's puffy eyes,"looks like you were crying."

"uh. . . . no i am alright." zenith tried to respond brightly but instead his voice cracked,"actually no."

"you wanna talk about it?" aurelia offered giving him a small smile. 

"you actually want to listen to me?" zenith asked with a surprised expression causing aurelia to nod in response,"um sure."

he moved aside making way for aurelia to enter inside his room which looked presentable. aurelia's eyes fell on a photpgraph kept on the bed but the face of the person was covered by the duvet over it. curiosity got the best of her and she pulled the photograph holding it out in front of her, an instant smile spreading on her lips when she saw how happy they looked.

 zenith was kissing a boy's cheeks who had same brown hair as zenith except that they weren't curly and the boy even had a mole on his right chin. 

"that's the reason why i locked myself up." zenith admitted, finally having aurelia's attention who turned around to find zenith sitting on the chair with a faint smile on his lips. 

"who is he?" aurelia questioned while zenith gestured her to sit down and make herself comfortable. 

"bradley." 

"is he your friend?" 

"i just hope you don't hate me after this." zenith murmured lowly before clearing his throat,"i don't know how to explain this aurelia but we're not just friends. more than that. i love him and i am not ashamed of it. i know people don't accept it, i don't know if you do but that doesn't changes the fact that he means so much to me." he looked at aurelia who was listening very intently to what he was saying,"back at ilvermony, i was really, really popular you know. i got the looks, the grades, the manners and everything. i had loads of friends one of whom was bradley. we were best of friends but as we grew up we realised that it wasn't just friendship which bonded us together but something else as pure as love.when my friends found out, they made fun of us and well left us." zenith's smile faded away,"but it didn't matter as long as i had bradley."

aurelia smiled sadly at him, understanding what he was trying to convey,"there's nothing to be embarrassed about it zenith. you love him and i think that's all matters. people judge us for our likes and dislikes but just stay true to yourself. be who you really are." zenith smiled at aurelia's gesture of comfort,"but i still don't get the reason you just locked yourself today."

"uh. . . " zenith stammered,"i saw him today. after three years." aurelia gave him a questioning look so he continued,"actually when his father found out about us, he scolded brad and tortured him when he wasn't ready to listen. but one day, he just left. just like left. today when i saw him it just brought back all the memories we created together and it kind of stung."

"i am sorry you had to go through that zenith." aurelia apologised, walking up to him,"but i am sure that there would have been a reason he disappeared without informing you."

"yeah maybe." zenith shrugged before changing the topic,"what about your party? i love eating cake you know. can i maybe get one piece?"

"oh of course." aurelia chuckled lightly, completely understanding why he suddenly changed the topic,"actually i want to introduce you to the weasleys and few of our friends. if you feel comfortable."

"sure. i have heard a lot about them from dumbledore." zenith replied, getting on his feet. 

reaching downstairs, everybody shared confused glances while theodore rolled his eyes at the way aurelia was holding onto his arm. 

after introducing zenith which came off a surprise for everyone, he felt loved and accepted by the way they were smiling at him and asking him about his life at ilvermony. "thank you." zenith mouthed to aurelia who was standing besides theodore, ready to blow the candles. aurelia squeezed her eyes shut for a moment as an acknowledgement and proceeded to blow the candles lighted on the cake ginny specially made for the twins. after a long time, aurelia felt the happiest she has ever been. 

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a/n: sorry for the long chapter 😭

i hope i made 'some' things clear. yeah ik it sucks. 

but i have always wanted to write this. omg yayy. 

- nora.