Word had spread quickly and Witches and Wizards from all over Britain had flooded Hogs-meade Village in order to attend the funeral faster than Harry had thought possible, even with magic. Madame Maxime had arrived at Hogwarts in her massive powder blue carriage drawn by winged Abraxans-causing quite the stir amongst the younger students who had never seen it before-the current Minister of Magic-who Harry had been avoiding like the Plague, along with the small contingent of Aurors who accompanied him-had come as well, though the cynic in him suspected that his presence was much more out of obligation to the position than any real desire to pay his respects to the fallen Headmaster. Fudge, spinning his emerald bowler hat nervously in his hands and looking as stressed as ever despite being almost a year out of the job, was there as well along with Rita Skeeter-who, to his absolute condemnation, clutched a notebook in her cherry taloned hands-and, to his even greater anger, a very insincere looking Dolores Umbridge who wore a black bow perched in her mousy hair. Though, he supposed, it was minorly vindicating to see her suddenly skitter away in fright at the sight of Firenze who stood at the bank of the Black Lake like a sentinel.

The rest of the herd of Centaur inhabiting the Forbidden Forest had come as well, though they were difficult to see in the deep shadows cast between the trees. The Hogwarts Ghosts were also there, visible only when they moved; an opalescent sheen of phantasmal color hanging in the air. Grawp, dressed in a black suit and pants each the size of a small marquee sat at the back of the gathered mourners, boulder-like head bowed and behavior uncharacteristically docile. The surface of the Black Lake rippled with the otherworldly singing of the Mermaids which inhabited it.

Harry sat, numbly, between Ron and Hermione watching as Hagrid-crying silently-carried Dumbledore's body wrapped in a purple burial shroud adorned with stars up to the front and rested it on the table which had been prepared there. A small man in a black suit, mostly bald with only the occasional tuft of hair protruding from his head at odd angles, rose from his seat and waddled up to the front. Beginning to speak a number of words which none of them could clearly catch.

"Where's Tom?" Hermione asked him quietly.

"He isn't coming."

"What! Why?"

Harry's green eyes drifted to the distant patch of boulders where he'd often gathered with Kenny and the others during their free periods back in the '40's. Taking in the shape of the black fox which sat there, Nagini coiled at its feet, watching. Ears perked. Close enough to hear but far enough away that most wouldn't notice its presence.

"He couldn't afford to be seen by Scrimgeour. The Ministry of Magic doesn't know about him, and until Voldemort's been dealt with he'd prefer that it remains that way."

That was the official reason that Tom had given him for his absence, but he'd seen the real reasoning behind his decision in the depths of the other's dark eyes.

I don't belong there.

It hurt, in the dull yet somehow poignant way that only the second hand pain of a person that one truly cared about could, to know that Tom still felt that way. He'd tried to convince the other boy otherwise, that he was wrong, that he did belong, that despite everything that had happened in the past he had changed and Dumbledore would want him there.

Despite looking as if he were desperate to believe him, still the dark brunet refused.

"Oh," reluctantly, Hermione dropped the matter and sat back in her chair. "Well, I suppose that makes sense."

"Why didn't you offer him your cloak, mate? He still could have come, and then the Minister wouldn't have been able to see him."

"I did." Tom had simply smiled at him-tight with emotions which he still wasn't used to feeling-and walked away. "He refused: has his reasons. Is working through a few things at the moment and, well…we had a little bit of a fight last night."

The man had finished speaking now. Reactions of surprise and minor horror swept the gathered group as Dumbledore's body and the table it lay on caught fire, the white flames raging for only a moment before transforming into a handsome tomb of glittering white marble.

"A fight?" Ginny repeated, voice wavering slightly from left over shock, as if seeking to distract herself from the startling display. "I didn't think that the two of you could fight."

"Our relationship isn't perfect, Ginny. Everyone fights." He replied with a wrung-out sigh. "And it wasn't really a fight. Or even an argument. Everything that had happened got the better of me and I just…tore into him. I regret it now, believe me. Especially given our conversation this morning."

"He didn't come because he thought he wasn't welcome. That's why he isn't here." Given that she was in on the secret, Harry shouldn't have been surprised to have her display insightfulness on a level usually reserved for the likes of Luna. "Even though you offered him the cloak, even though Scrimgeour wouldn't be able to see him, he stayed away because he felt like he didn't belong."

"Oh, why would he think that? Just because he transferred and only knew him for a semester? That's ridiculous!"

"Your boyfriend is an idiot, mate."

Despite himself, Harry couldn't prevent a small smile from unfurling on his face as the Centaurs' tribute rained down from the sky with a shrill whistling hiss and the Mermaids sank back below the surface of the Black Lake.

"Tom would be the first to tell you that he's emotionally retarded." He said, eyes returning to the black fox as it slipped away and headed towards the bridge. With the funeral now over, the mourners began to depart. "But he's getting better. Despite all of their many differences, Dumbledore would be proud of him for that."

"We all know you are." Ginny said as they rose stiffly from their seats, falling in with the rest of the student body as they filtered slowly back towards the Castle. "I know that the three of you and Tom have a 'talk' to be getting around to, just keep in mind that the Hogwarts Express will be arriving within the hour. All of you are already packed?"

"Tom made sure that both he and Harry were packed last night. I handled Ron."

As his younger sister smirked at him Ron turned as red as his hair. "Merlin, Hermione! I'm not a child!"

"Would you have remembered to pack your trunk on your own, Ronald?"

"I…well, yeah! Course I would have!"

"Oh, of course." Ginny snickered, pulling away from them as the three broke off from the main group and headed towards the covered bridge. "I'll see you on the train."

"See you later, Ginny."

The locket was cold and heavy in his pocket, the double of the real Horcrux bouncing gently against his chest underneath his shirt as they walked down the hill towards the ravine. Tom, as he suspected, was already there standing at the railing and looking out over the rocky crevice hewn into the earth.

Before either Harry or Ron could speak Hermione flung herself into Tom's arms, nearly sending them both toppling over the edge and into the abyss below.

"Ms. Granger-!"

"You idiot! How could you ever think that you weren't welcome there! Have you been standing down here this whole time?"

"The Minister-."

"Don't try that excuse," Ron cut in from where he still stood beside Harry. "Harry told us that he offered you the Invisibility Cloak. That you refused because you felt like you shouldn't be there. Well let me tell you something, you were much more welcome than any of those slimy Slytherin wankers!"

"Watch it Weasley, I am a Slytherin." There was no bite to his voice and a small, fond smile rested on his thin lips.

"By blood, but not by House." Not anymore.

"Oh?"

Harry smirked, stepping up beside Hermione and dragging Ron with him. Cornering the dark brunet in an only slightly unwilling group hug. "Maybe in another life."

"Perhaps." Submitting to the embrace, likely due to having realized that between the three of them all potential escape routes were blocked, Tom sighed. "A past life. But we're here for something else, are we not Precious?"

"Yes," Harry stepped away from him reluctantly, Ron and Hermione immediately releasing Tom as well to focus their attention on him. "We are."

The locket now felt as if it were made from solid lead and possessed of a conscious sentience, the entire purpose of which was to drag him to the ground.

"Dumbledore sent me to get Tom for help in hunting down Horcruxes." As expected Ron gave him a blank look but it was somewhat disconcerting for him to see a similar look on Hermione. "A Horcrux…it's a vessel inside of which a person hides a piece of their soul. To make them immortal. It's really Dark Magic and it's how he survived after what happened in Godric's Hollow. Voldemort…he made seven of them, split his soul into eight pieces, but two of them have already been destroyed. Dumbledore was hunting them, and now the responsibility has been left to Tom and I."

Both turned white. Ron was gapping at him, horror stricken and unable to speak, and Hermione looked as if on the verge of becoming sick.

"So...a Horcrux is what you were out hunting last night?"

Harry nodded, pulling the locket out of his pocket and glaring at it viciously. "We were, but it was all for nothing. It's fake! Someone got to it before us."

"R.A.B., according to the note they left inside it." Tom said. "Who that is, we've no idea."

"Until we destroy all seven of them Voldemort can't die! And it's for that reason, because I'll be hunting them down and finding some way to get rid of them, that I won't be coming back to Hogwarts next year."

"What? Harry, that's-!"

"Harry has his reasons, Ms. Granger. Please, allow him to explain." Tom intervened grimly. Once sure neither of them would make further efforts to interrupt, he nodded to the raven. "By all means, Precious."

"I'm going to go back to the Dursley's once more. Only because it's what Dumbledore wanted me to do." From his expression, it was obvious that saying so was incredibly difficult. "But it'll be a short visit, and then I'll be gone for good."

"And where are you going to go? Like you said, neither you nor Tom know who R.A.B. is so there's no possible way that you could know where the real locket wound up or what happened to it." Hermione pointed out. "And what about the other Horcruxes? Do you know what they are? Where they are?"

"That's why Dumbledore needed me. Blood can be used to reveal many different things, and as Voldemort's last living blood-relative I was the only person who could provide it without needing to go directly to the source."

"I'm going to go back. To Godric's Hollow." The idea had first sprung into his head the night before and had been gnawing at the back of his mind ever since. "That's where all of this started for me. That's where my parents are buried. I could visit their graves." Harry's green eyes dropped to his feet and he leaned against Tom for support. "I'd like that."

"And after you've done that?" Ron asked him.

"Harry and I are going to hunt them down, one by one, and destroy them come hell or high water. And then we're going to go for the Dark Lord himself and end this nightmare once and for all."

The last stragglers from the funeral could still be seen making their way up towards the front doors of the Castle.

"We're going to be there, Harry. Hermione and I."

Raising his head, Harry blinked at his best friend in confused surprise. "What?"

"At your Aunt and Uncle's, mate. We're not going to let you do this alone."

"I won't-."

"We know that Tom will be with you, and he's incredibly strong and so intelligent that is' almost unnatural but it's better to have more protection and aid than any one person can provide." Hermione told him. "Do you remember when you said to us that there was time to turn back if we wanted to? Well, we haven't. And we're not going to."

"Your friends and I are with you, whatever happens." Tom's large warm hand fell on his shoulder, applying soothing pressure. "Best served to save your breath and let them come, rather than trying to argue."

"Remember when I called him an idiot earlier? I take it back. Tom's bloody brilliant!" The dark brunet rolled his eyes dramatically at the red head's comment. "But you've got to come around to the Burrow before we do anything else. Even Godric's Hollow. We can't miss Bill and Fleur's wedding, after all."

Bill and Fleur's wedding? With all that had happened, with everything that he felt sure was still to come, Harry found himself unable to process the prospect that something so mundane and normal could possibly still happen in their world.

Tom, sensing his line of thought, squeezed his shoulder again. "Life," he said sagely, "goes on. Through nightfall and daybreak. Now, we ought to be away or we'll run the risk of missing the train home."

The raven nodded rather stiffly and the dark brunet released his shoulder to take his hand instead. Together, the Golden Quartet left the covered bridge behind and began to make their way towards the train station.

"Ron and I will get back to the two of you about half-way through the journey back. We have last minute Prefectural duties to attend to, I'm afraid."

Harry didn't verbally respond. Tom nodded to the two of them and Hermione quickly dragged Ron away. With their shrunken trunks safely tucked away in one of the pockets of his robes, the dark brunet led him onto the cherry red steam engine and located an empty compartment for the two of them.

Tom dealt with stowing and resizing their trunks as Harry pulled the door closed with a metallic clank before slumping onto one of the benches. The taller male sat beside him not long after.

"Why didn't you tell them who I really am, Precious? The chance to do so finally presented itself, yet you didn't take it."

Harry bowed his head, furiously mussing up his black hair and leaving it even more of a bird's nest than usual. "It wasn't the time, Tom. I know that we need to tell them everything but…"

"I understand your reasoning but we can't put it off forever. I know that you don't want to risk a bad reaction but trust me, this matter will blow up in our faces if we leave it until my counterpart discloses my identity on the field of battle."

"I know that!"

Tom rolled the Hornbeam wand between his agile fingers for a moment before speaking again. "I can no longer rely solely on my glamor to protect me. With Dumbledore gone and the task of hunting down the remaining Horcruxes dropped into our laps the likelihood that we'll encounter my counterpart is the highest that it's ever been. I'll need something stronger, less subtle, to mask the truth." He offered a somewhat washed-out smile as silver threading began to sprout from his wand. "And what better to do that than a mask?"

Moments later the completed Fox mask sat in his hands. The very same one that he'd worn on Halloween. Ages ago now, it seemed. The dark brunet raised it to his face and asked "how do I look?"

"I like you better without it. Though I guess not being able to see your face is the point." Having only gotten less than an hour of sleep the night before Harry felt nearly dead on his feet and nestled into Tom's side as the other boy banished the mask again. "You won't be wearing that all the time?"

"No," Tom replied, stretching himself across the bench and pulling Harry down on top of him, "only when there's a possibility that he'll show up. Perhaps whenever we come into contact with the Death Eaters, simply to be safe."

The raven mumbled something incoherent into his chest.

"I won't be able to come with you to the Dursley's, Precious. The Order will want to keep me under their watch. Just stay at #4 until we come for you; it shouldn't be long."

Harry's grip around his middle tightened but he was too far gone to reply with words.

"Things will turn out for the best in the end. He'll be gone soon. Gone for good this time, and you'll never have to worry about him again." With the raven now fully unconscious on top of him, Nagini and Hedwig safely stowed in the still open overhead compartment and the train rocking gently beneath them Tom allowed himself to close his eyes as well.

No one disturbed them until the Hogwarts Express pulled into King Cross Station's Platform 9 ¾.