章節 8: True Tale of the Deathly Hallows

June 1994

4 Privet Drive

Now it was Ignotus's turn to tell his story.

He started, "I being the wise one" he chuckled and continued, "wanted an artifact that could bypass any kind of magical scrutiny. I crafted an invisibility cloak never seen like before and most probably would never be seen in future also. No magical spell, neither kind of magic sight nor any kind of magical perception or any other magical artifact could detect my invisibility cloak. I could have used the cloak to bypass into most advanced of the wards like a child playa and no person would know of it. Even death had a hard time in detecting its presence."

Harry stared in awe at the three brothers. If what they said to be true then he was probably talking to the strongest wizards ever seen, not because they wielded the elder wand, resurrection stone or the Death cloak but because they had capability to create and craft something like this.

"The story in the book is so foolish. It seems like wizarding common sense has gone into drain," chuckled Cadmus.

"How?" Questioned Harry instantly.

"Start with the story itself which says that death was displeased because we three brothers created a bridge to cross a river and avoided it. People had been doing that since centuries and would continue to do forever. Be it through muggle or magical means," stated Antioch.

He continued, "But let us consider the river and bridge part to be metaphor about us somehow fooling death, which should be a great feat in itself. But then I ask a wand like none other in existence and then I turn completely ignorant. I turn out to be so naive that I scream to the world about the elder wand and then let some buffoon slit my throat in midnight."

The three brothers chuckled at this and even Harry found the logic reasonable. If the three brothers were so cunning and powerful so as to cheat death then how did they start to take foolish decisions. It had no logic so whatsoever.

"Then about my story. I ask for something as to humiliate death and then immediately give my own life. Unbelievable," stated Cadmus.

"I cannot complaint much. The tale at least showed me wise even if it was all wrong," muttered Ignotus.

"So, the three objects have nothing to do with Death and hallows," asked Harry tentatively.

The three brothers turned silent for few moments.

"We never said that," sighed Antioch.

Harry got confused and was to fire a volley of questions but Antioch continued, "All the three objects we crafted was somehow connected or related to death. The wand due to the Thestral hair but somehow it got more related to death than we expected. The stone could save a dying man anchoring its soul and stopping it from crossing veil and the cloak by hiding its presence from death itself even if for a short time."

Harry now was in anticipation.

Ignotus picked up the tale, "Death was impressed upon by our creation. It granted its blessings, a small bit of its power to our creations and made them powerful, more powerful than it already was. It was then they truly turned out be Deathly hallows."

"If someone collects all the three hallows, will he be Master of Death?" Questioned Harry. "And did you all three met Death? I mean how did it granted its power to the hallows?"

"We did not met Death, well not in the sense you ask. It just blessed the hallows and how do we know about this. We just know," answered Cadmus.

"And no one can be Master of Death. Everyone must cross the veil." He added further. "We will explain it in our second part of discussion."

"Which is why were you chosen as our heir?" Commented Antioch.

Harry nodded in affirmative.

Ignotus started, "We lived a very long life. Wizards have a longer life and we were already very powerful and due to our connection with hallows our lifespan extended even further. We saw foundation of Hogwarts, the legendary battle between Merlin and Morgana Le Fey and many more things. And let me correct you Salazar never turned evil and neither Morgana was evil. You will know more about all of them after our inheritance."

He continued, "Even so we were finally getting old and we dreaded one thing. Not our death but the power we would be leaving behind. The three hallows in wrong hands and the whole world would be turned upside down."

Harry agreed with that. He could imagine what Tom Riddle or Voldermort would have done with such kind of power.

"We devised a ritual and again with an invisible help of Death sealed the true power of the hallows. They would remain strong even in their sealed state but nowhere near their original power," added Antioch.

"In the ritual we stored our inheritance to be remained sealed till our true heir is found out who will wield the hallows with their true power and that heir is you my boy," concluded Antioch.

Without giving any chance for Harry to speak Cadmus picked up, "And why were you chosen? Because you were deemed worthy by magic and by Death itself. Magic may have deemed many a people worthy but Death deems no one worthy. When we sealed the powers, we were almost sure that there would never come a human who would be deemed worthy by Death itself. You are a special one my boy."

Harry almost froze in his place. All this information was too much take in. Deemed worthy by Magic and Death itself.

He could not remember any thing which would warrant such a thing. He had only survived till now only because of luck.

"Tell us how many times have you brushed Death, Harry?" Questioned Antioch.

And so began Harry's tale of his life. He told his story about his survival from the killing curse, to his foolish duel with a troll to his legendary battle with a Basilisk and soul possessed Diary and his three near death experience against the dementors.

At the end of his tale the brothers stood solemn, surprised, stunned and definitely in awe of the little boy in front of them.