A/N: As I may have mentioned to some of you personally, I have decided to complete Invictus before continuing To Tame the Hearts of Men. This is mostly due to the fact that, with how often I feel like writing, it is difficult for me to go back and forth between two different stories and pick up the thread. After updating back and forth between the two earlier this month I was forced to go back and re-read Invictus all over again from the beginning to remember what had and hadn't happened, as I was mixing it up with TTtHoM. So, here's to the completion of Invictus!

but the eyes of his children

were so bitterly burned

that i could not stand to look at them

when he finally came to visit me

he was dressed in the rags of poverty

and it came as no surpass

it came as no surprise

Chapter Five: Hampshire

Their first sight of the promised town came at dusk, and Snape called a halt of their party. Harry was baffled.

"But, there's a town right there," he protested, pointing into the distance. Severus just gave him an unfathomable look.

"Potter, I'll forgive your ignorance because you have never been walking around wizarding Britain during times of great fear," he said finally, and Remus—of all things!—nodded in agreement.

"Not only that, Harry, but most towns don't have the kind of protections that larger establishments have, and they are frequently afflicted by shades and specters in the night. It would be wrong of us to go knocking on their doors after dark, and they would instantly perceive us as a threat, not to be trusted." Harry looked at Remus with disbelief, but this seemed to be something that most wizards knew, as the others were nodding agreement.

"Alright," he said, miffed, before he turned to helping set up camp. As dusk fully turned to night, the party found themselves sitting around a roaring fire and talking.

"I wish we had some marshmallows," Harry sighed, peeling bark off of a stick. Hermione nodded in agreement, but the rest of the group looked baffled.

"Marsh…mellows?" Charlie asked, trying out the word.

"Yes, they're nice little creatures that live in marshes and have a calming effect on their immediate surroundings, which can sometimes be a trap used by a predator, which uses the marsh-mellows talent to mask his presence," Luna said matter-of-factly, and Harry and Hermione could only stare, flabbergasted.

"Assuming this creature does exist, why would Harry want one?" Severus inquired, and Luna beamed.

"I was going to ask the same!" she exclaimed, seeming pleased that she and Snape had thought of the same question.

"I—we—but—" Harry was spluttering as Hermione collapsed against Draco in a fit of giggles.

"I never heard o' that," Hagrid grumbled, irritable that there was a creature he hadn't heard of. Hermione giggled louder as Luna winked at her, no one else having noticed the subtle flick of an eyelid.

"Luna, are you tricking them again?" Charlie asked, finally catching on to his lovers game.

"No, of course not!" Luna answered, giving his suspicious stare a look of wide eyed innocence.

"Marshmallows are food!" Harry finally exclaimed, causing everyone to turn and look at him. "They're little white sugary things that you put in a fire for a bit before eating. The outside is supposed to get brown and crunchy while the inside gets all melty. They're delicious!" Everyone stared at him for a second before Luna responded.

"Harry how could you eat the poor creatures?!" And at her mockingly horrified look, everyone dissolved into laughter.

"So, there isn't a creature called a marshmallow?" Ron asked, clarifying. "It's a muggle sweet of some sort?" Hermione nodded at him between her hiccups, which had sprung to life during her fit of laughter. A slow grin spread across his face as he joined the laughter, and for once Ron was included in the warmth that grew around Harry Potter.

"So, tell me," Severus said later, sitting down in a chair placed beside Lupins tent after the others had gone to sleep. Remus sighed, sitting as well.

"I don't have much to add, really. I was beyond the veil, and something had taken control of my body. I had to force it out." He looked down at his hands, remembering.

"Details, please, from the beginning." Severus insisted, and Remus sighed again.

"Some of the details are personal, Severus. I was…almost attacked, by my own memories. If I had allowed it to continue, I wouldn't have had the focus to come back."

"Memories…" Snape muttered.

"Personal memories? Like you and Sirius?" Harry asked, walking over to the two startled men from where he had been sitting behind a rock, looking at the stars.

"Harry, how do you—" Remus stuttered, unable to form a coherent sentence in the face of his very private longings being voiced so easily by this boy-child.

"Oh, it's obvious, you know, how you feel about each other," Harry said offhand, sitting down on the ground and stretching his legs in front of him. "You two weren't having a secret meeting about the recent events without me, were you? Of course, you intended to include me, it just slipped your mind." He looked sternly at the other two men, and while Remus was still reeling from this new information, Severus looked back at him steadily.

"I won't apologize, Potter," he said stiffly, and Harrys face softened.

"There's no need. Just please include me next time," he said softly, and the other man nodded once.

"Harry, whatever makes you think that Sirius and I—" Remus tried again, but cut himself off at a look from Harry that was almost patronizing.

"I thought about it for a while. It was actually your example that helped me in my…persistence…with Severus. I don't know why you guys choose to hide your relationship, but…" Harry trailed off and shrugged. Lupin just gaped at him.

"Harry…Sirius and I are friends. I may…I may feel more for him, but…" He trailed off, shaking his head, and Harry felt a flash of understanding rock through him. He put a hand on the man's knee, causing Remus to look up from his hands with strained eyes.

"Remus…I've seen the looks Sirius give you. If you were under the impression that your feelings were once sided, you were wrong," the man shook his head in mute denial at Harrys words.

"I honestly thought it was rather sickening, how obviously hang-dog Black looks whenever you brush his hands away from you, following after you like a stray hound…" Severus supplied, smirking at Remus when the other man glared. Harry frowned at his lover, but he couldn't help the smile that tugged at the edges of his lips.

"Either way, it's not possible for us to be together," Remus said stiffly, and Harry looked shocked.

"Whyever not?" Severus asked, stealing the question from Harrys mouth.

"The wolf…it…this is not something I'm prepared to discuss." Remus said, firming up and looking at them both defiantly. Harry shrugged.

"Containing your inner wolf sounds more like an excuse, Remus." He said firmly. "Besides, Severus will make you the wolfsbain potion, won't you?" He directed the last at Snape, who nodded. Remus sighed with exasperation.

"It's not the full moon I'm worried about, Harry! That wolf is a part of me, waking or sleeping, full moon or new. And it shares my emotions…have you ever seen how a werewolfs mate?" the sickness of his shame, guilt, and pain was apparent on his face as he looked between the two men, not wanting to have this conversation but finding some relief in it anyway.

"You wouldn't hurt Sirius," Harry said blithely, although he was not in fact aware of werewolf mating techniques.

"You don't know that!" Remus exploded, standing up to pace. Severus stood with him and intercepted him, grabbing the other man by his shoulders.

"I suggest you give Black the chance to make his own choices, wolf. Nothing comes from attempting to protect them by staying away."

"Know that from experience, do you?" Remus snapped, but Severus just looked back at him steadily, eyes flickering for a moment to rest on Harry.

"Yes."

At this, all the fight seemed to go out of Remus as the other man sank heavily into the chair he had been occupying, looking between Harry and Snape suspiciously as though they had maneuvered him here.

"I will take your words under advisement." He said tersely. "Regardless, that is not what we came here to discuss."

The other two seemed content to let the matter drop, but before Remus could continue his tale, a rending scream split the air, followed by more. And it was coming from the village to their north. Harry was on his feet instantly and dashing away, followed almost immediately by the other two men and soon, the entire camp.

Fire. Fire and blackness and shadows, screams and howls and inhuman noises never meant to come from a human mouth. He couldn't see much, only watch as the boy went rushing on ahead of him, never getting too far away. When the boy finally stopped, he took his time to assess the destruction around them. There was fire everywhere, and in the shadows was something darker than shadow, though he could not place it. The people of the village seem to have gone mad. No one was paying attention as Severus and the rest of the group stopped in the center of the square, they were all too busy with other things.

Severus watched as a little girl gnawed on the leg of what looked like her mother, eyes wide and void of any emotion as the blood seeped between her teeth and lips. The mother didn't seem to notice as she stood there, dragging her nails again and again down her own face, eyes vapid and wide as well. People were setting fires to their own houses, slaughtering livestock and murdering each other brutally. It was sheer madness, nothing made sense.

He watched as a man casually slipped a long knife between the ribs of another, smiling and patting the man as he stumbled back and fell, bleeding.

"They're killing each other!" Harry shuddered, listening to the inhuman noises from the inhuman beings all around them.

"We should leave," Severus said, putting a hand on Harrys shoulder. The boy spun around, eyes panicked and wild.

"We need to help them!" He shouted, shocked and shaking.

"They are beyond our help, caught in the grip of something evil. We should leave before we are caught as well." Harrys jaw set and he looked like he was going to argue when a more human scream split the air.

"No!" Luna screamed, grabbing as grasping for some part of Charlie as the struggling wizard was dragged slowly away by a group of smiling, hollow eyed men. The others rushed to help, spells flying, but the spells bounced off the skin of these strange creatures and they were afraid to hit Charlie with a direct one. Charlie, too, was firing off spells, but his seemed to have no effect either as Luna screamed and threw herself forward, clutching the leg of his trousers.

Severus stepped forward; pushing the others aside and attempting an unforgiveable, but those bounced off as well and only seemed to enrage the human-not-human beasts. They were tearing into him now, some with their teeth and others with hands. Charlies screams split the air as they began, dirty fingernails puncturing firm flesh and ripping with abandon, teeth gouging, tongues licking, eyes void and smiling. They weren't eating him, merely…opening him.

Luna had collapsed in tears into Hermiones arms when they ripped her hand from his leg, but as Charlies screams split the air her head tilted down, tears drying.

"No," a deep voice—surely not her voice—emitted from her throat, and she stood without Hermiones help. Hermione gulped as the other girl looked at her, for Lunas eyes were shards of ice, the whites of her eyes crystallized and fading into a brilliant and deep blue towards the middle. It was almost as though her eyes had been replaced with ice, actual ice, but the girl still seemed to be able to see. Hermione hung back as the other woman walked forward to the head of their group, dropping her wand and kneeling.

Her hands touched the earth, head bowed over them as though praying, before she spoke.

"You will all die," she said in that deep, disturbing voice. No one tried to stop her, but three members of the group instantly and soundlessly threw up the strongest defense they knew to surround their group, afraid. Harry took Hermiones hand, placing his other on Rons shoulder as Hermione grabbed Dracos. Without asking, he added their strength to his, strengthening the shield with a burst of will and power. A blinding white light flashed from Luna, leaving everyone blind as a sound like thunder issued from her vicinity. In a moment of fear and concern, Harry reached towards Luna with his mind, wanting to protect her as well. Harry didn't have a chance to see if their shield had worked; the instant the sound hit his ears, he fell unconscious.

Everything hurt. Every smallest part of his body and mind hurt. He imagined that his pancreas even hurt. Tiny pinpricks of pain radiated from all parts of his body and the soreness in his muscles twitched and danced with fire at even the smallest movement.

He tried to groan, unable to move, and his vocal chords lit on fire with their use, making him feel like he was trying to swallow heat. And he hadn't even made a sound; his groan had never actually issued from his mouth.

"Harry?" a voice said over him, sounding worried. He cracked his eyes a millimeter, grimacing at the light, although he appeared to be inside a tent. His senses began to return, supplanting the fire, and he could sense that everyone was crowded around where he lay, in the bed. He tried to ask what had happened, but his voice still wouldn't work. Frustrated, he tried to sit up, but steady hands held him down where he lay.

"We're not sure, Harry," Severus said quietly. "Luna seems to be okay, just tired and heartsick. Charlies dead, but none of our own were otherwise hurt. The village…the village, and the people, are gone."

"Completely gone, not a trace," Hermione said, a tinge of fear and wonder creeping into her voice. Harrys vision was returning, and he looked at them all quizzically.

"We don't have the answers, we can only guess," Remus said, and Harrys eyes snapped to him.

"What we think happened," Draco continued,

"Is that something was able to possess Luna and act on her vengeful love, and destroy the village and the people." Ron finished, causing Draco to glare at him, but only half-heartedly.

"I felt you reaching towards her," Severus said, again quietly. "I don't know what you did, exactly, but together we managed to protect everyone…including Luna, whose rage at Charlies death surely would have included us in the blast." He sighed, looking down at Harry. "But it seems you managed to protect her and throw the vengeful spirit out of her, as well."

Harry tried to speak again, but he couldn't. Since feeling had returned to most of his body and he didn't feel so much pain, he sat up and gestured frantically at his throat. Severus frowned, looking at Harry and muttering a diagnostic spell.

"He can't speak," the man said with disbelief.

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione said sorrowfully, grabbing his hand and squeezing. Harry looked baffled, but looked at Severus and opened a mental link with occluency.

I swallowed it. I swallowed the ice spirit of revenge and love, whatever it was. In that last moment, when it lashed out at everything nearby, I held onto our shields and protected everyone…but I also swallowed the spirit. And now it's gone.

Severus stared at Harry, thinking, not sharing with the others what had been said.

Perhaps, Harry, with your distinctive link to death—and thus, the other side of the veil—you were able to act as a sort of conductor or conduit, forcing the spirit from this side to the other. If you had to use your own body to do it…it may have damaged you physically.

Will I ever be able to speak again? The panic and fear that tinged the boys voice made Severus sorrowful.

I don't know, he admitted.

Harry stared at everyone else for a long moment, looking at them and studying them. Finally, he got up and walked out of the room amid their protests, going to find Luna.

The young woman sat in the middle of what had once been a village, staring at the ground. She looked up when Harry approached, and watched him with steady, red-rimmed eyes as he sat down with her.

They looked at one another for several long moments, and when tears started building in Lunas eyes she did nothing to brush them away.

"Oh Harry…I'm so sorry," She said, looking down. Harry put a hand on her shoulder, and when she looked up, he smiled slightly. It was easy to speak in her mind; she had never learned occlumency.

I've lost my voice, Luna. He said, gesturing to his throat so she would know it was him in her mind. For a terrifying moment she looked white and cold, all the small warmth she had going out of her at yet another intrusion of her mind, before she realized who it was.

"I…it's my fault," she said, looking down as more tears rushed down her cheeks.

No. You felt grief and madness and pain, a thirst for revenge and anger. It is not your fault that a spirit of vengeful love possessed you. It is not your fault for loving him. It is all of us who failed to protect him, but me more than anyone. I rushed in there without a thought. It was me.

Luna looked up at him, unable to voice what she felt.

I am so, so sorry Luna. She looked at him for a long moment.

"No," she said, looking back down. "You might have rushed in there, but I was too distracted to even notice they had taken him until it was too late."

Dumbledore had told him something once, long ago, and it came to him now as the answer of fault.

Do not let others force you to wear their cloak of evil, when the blame lies elsewhere. He thought, urging her to look at him again. It's not your fault, nor mine. We may have been more vigilant and less rash, and we will have to deal with that knowledge. But it's the evil that stalks the earth that is at fault. It's the force that possessed those innocent villagers that's to blame.

Luna looked at him with a hope and yearning that was almost painful, and after a moment she fell against him, sobbing.

"I miss him so much," she cried as Harry hugged her.

"I know." He said softly, unable to fathom the pain of losing Severus when even imagining it hurt him too much to bear.

"I know." He murmured, rocking her, stroking her hair, holding her. He didn't know what else to do; it was agony to watch someone suffer so much over something that was impossible to fix.

They sat there for a very long time.

If this should end tomorrow

All our best laid plans

And all our typical fears

Am I running out of lifetimes

This is not the first time

Something ends in just tears