Disclaimer: If you haven’t read A Parting Dream, the prequel to this story, don’t worry. If you want more background information about the events leading up to this piece, then please, read it. In any case, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the rest of the Hogwarts gang belongs to the illustrious JK Rowling, not me. Anything you don’t recognize as hers, however, belongs to me and if you want to use it (though I’m not sure why you would), just ask me!

One last thing, I’ve got to give a big round of applause to my editor, George Weasley’s Girlfriend a.k.a. JanaBelle for helping me out with this fic. I couldn’t have done it without you!

Ron ran through the hallways, two steps behind Harry, and at least five behind Lyria. For such a small little girl, she sure was fast. Even Hermione was taller than she was, he mused.

Still, not even speculation about this girl could take his mind off the current situation. Between Harry and Hermione’s explanations, he’d managed to get the jist of Widow’s Lament, and if Death’s Lament was even close to as powerful…he didn’t want it imagine what the effects would be. People being able to raise the dead for dark purposes…once again, he had to force his train of thought to derail, trying to concentrate solely on keeping up with Harry and Lyria.

"Ron…! Wait up…" It was Hermione, calling him from behind. She was trying to keep up, but was at least ten paces behind. Without thinking, Ron turned around and went to her.

"Are you alright?"

Hermione just slowed to a stop and nodded, but her breathing was a bit ragged. "I’m fine, just a bit worn…"

Ron looked her over carefully. She did seem more worn than usual, her eyes were a bit blearier and her posture was different, sagging a bit more. Normally she would be able to keep up with him and Harry, but she was obviously not feeling perfect.

"It’s probably just a side effect of sleep deprivation. In any case, I’m slowing you down. I want you to go ahead without me, while I get Professor McGonagall. We’re going to need all the help we can get if this spell is anything like I suspect it is." He started to protest, but one looked from her silenced him. She then softened her glance slightly, "Ron, be careful, okay?"

He started to say something, but stopped and just nodded. "I will."

"Oh, and one more thing…" She took a piece of parchment out of her robe and handed it to him. "If things are bad when you get there, use this. It’s a pretty powerful counter-charm, and it should slow things down at least. Good luck."

"You too." They parted ways, and Ron cast one last glance at Hermione over his shoulder before sprinting down the hallways after Harry and Lyria.

* * *

The cauldron bubbled and boiled as Cho stood apprehensiously over it. It was so much easier when someone was performing the spell for you…then all you had to do was stand there and wait. She took a breath to calm her nerves, and then raised her arms to the ceiling, like she had seen Lyria do before, and began to chant.

She emptied a vial of her tears into the cauldron and acid green sparks arose from the cauldron, one or two burning little holes in Cho’s robes, causing her to flinch. However, her longing for one more chance overcame her fear and she continued.

Cho took the dagger and re-opened the wound Lyria had made on her forearm before, letting the blood drip into the cauldron. The acid green color faded, a deep crimson color taking its place. It churned in the cauldron, as if there was a great power waiting to be released. Cho was not about to keep it waiting.

The cauldron literally exploded, the contents vaporizing to form a sickening crimson cloud with twinges of acid green. Cho stepped back from the deadly looking cloud and suddenly realized this was wrong…very wrong…

Once again, the shape of a man formed in the cloud, but it wasn’t Cedric at all…or at least nothing that could be seemingly connected with Cedric. The shape of the body was right, though he was over twice his normal size, and the facial structure was similar…but he looked like he was merely a giant piece of carefully sculpted glass that contained the swirling crimson and green gasses. Except for his eyes. His eyes were like vengeful bloodstones, gleaming vindictively in the faint torchlight of the room. Cho’s hands flew to her mouth to smother a cry as he faced her.

There was nothing behind his eyes. The very window to his kind, pure soul seemed tinted and distorted like a funhouse mirror, only reflecting an eerily evil blankness back at her. This wasn’t Cedric…this couldn’t be her Cedric…

"What is my purpose?" The figure of Cedric asked in a booming, monotone voice.

"Pur…purpose? Cedric, I just wanted to see you again!" Cho cried.

Suddenly, anger filled his bloodstone eyes. "You dare disturb the otherworld, call upon the forces of shadow to summon me here, and then you give me no purpose to fulfill?" His eyes flashed and Cho cringed. What had she done?

"Do you know the price for such actions?" The figure demanded. "Do you?!"

"Please, Cedric, I know you’re in there somewhere…"

"SILENCE!" The figure roared, his voice sending Cho stumbling back into the wall in fright. "You have summoned a spirit of the shadow realm, the price for my servitude is your life. If my servitude is to end, you must be the one to end it…with your death!" He hissed dangerously, stepping closer to her.

Cho’s eyes widened. "No…that can’t be…Cedric, you weren’t like this before, why are you now?" She pleaded frantically, wondering what went wrong.

The figure’s eyes glared. "You poor, sniveling little fool. You had no idea what you had gotten yourself into until you were in well over your head." He closed the distance between him and Cho in a matter of seconds, leaving staring up at the swirling mass of gasses, completely paralyzed with fright. "I have no pity for the ignorant, why, you’re only a mere student…" His eyes narrowed. "I also only serve those worthy of me, and you are not worthy, and so I shall take my freedom. Enjoy the afterlife, I’m sure your precious Cedric is." The figure picked her up by the throat and threw her across the room. She crashed into the table, hitting the wall behind her with a sickening thud. Lights flashed in front of her eyes and she thought she saw two figures dart into the room as darkness consumed her completely.

* * *

Harry and Lyria ran into the room just as the imposing gaseous figure threw Cho across the room and into the table. Harry winced visibly as her head struck the wall, twisting a knife inside his heart. He ran to her without a second thought, checking her pulse. Lyria looked white with fright as he listened to her chest for a heartbeat. He held his breath…thump. He breathed a sigh of relief, she was still alive.

"Fools! How dare you interfere with my purpose!" The figure exclaimed, advancing on Harry and Cho. Harry pulled out his wand and yelled, "Stupefy!"…but it didn’t even slow him down. If anything, the figure looked amused.

"You think silly parlor tricks like that are going to stop me?" he rumbled.

"Expelliarmus!" Lyria and Harry cast their spells at the same time, but once again, the figure didn’t even seem to feel it. Both of them hurled the most powerful curses they could think of at the thing, but it never seemed to have any effect. Finally, it was so close to Harry and Cho that Lyria decided to use something a bit more concrete to hit the giant.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Lyria shouted, pointing at the large cauldron. It hovered above the ground and with a few quick movements of her wrist, she had directed it to his the figure. He roared in pain and whirled around on her. He came at her with both fists, but Lyria rolled away, panting.

"Harry, help me!" She exclaimed, pointing her wand at the figure again. She opened her mouth to yell a curse, but the figure grabbed her in one hand, squeezing her tightly. Harry heard something crack and Lyria moaned in pain, so he shouted the first thing that came to mind.

"Expecto Patronum!" He exclaimed, summoning the happiest thought he could imagine at the moment, which was that this was all over and they were safe. A glistening silver stag flowed seamlessly from the tip of his wand and charged the figure. At first, the figure dodged it, but the second time the stag rammed it, causing the figure severe pain. He actually dropped Lyria, who crumpled to the floor and crawled away as far away from the figure as she could, breathing heavily, a pained expression clear on her face, and her wand ready in her hand.

The stag shimmered once more, and faded. The figure, though in pain, was angrier than ever and chose Harry as his target. He stormed over to Harry, who tried to summon another patronum…but his mind went blank as the figure loomed over him. He backed up, but soon found himself up against a cold stone wall. He was trapped.

The figure smiled. "Ahh, the shadows will be pleased that your death was a side effect of my trip here. Very pleased indeed," it said as it noticed the scar on Harry’s forehead. Harry prepared to dodge the figure, when suddenly one last person ran into the room.

"Ron! Get out of here!" Harry screamed at the person, ducking the figure’s punch, but the punch was of such a magnitude that the wall crumbled slightly and shards of it were freed to slice through Harry’s skin and robes.

Instead of leaving, though, Ron raised his wand and began to chant.

The only word that could describe the next events would be "miracle". A beam of pure white light, so dazzling that everyone had to cover their eyes for fear of being blinded, engulfed the green and scarlet figure. An unearthly scream of pain burst from the creature’s very soul as it was dissolved. First the glass-like covering…then the scarlet gas…followed by the acid green…until all that was left were two small bloodstones that fell to the ground, dull and lifeless. The light faded away, and all that was left was a wrecked room with three rather astonished people and one unconscious one.

* * *

Once again, the girls’ wish for the room to be kept a secret was respected. Ron helped Lyria out of the room and Harry carried Cho out. Ron helped Lyria sit down and then went to close the wall, and Lyria motioned for Harry to come over after he set Cho down gently.

"Harry…this may not be the right time to ask, but did you think about what I told you earlier?" Lyria asked.

Harry looked at her with a puzzled expression for a moment, but then realization dawned on him. "When you were saying that the first time around things didn’t go as they were supposed to…?"

Lyria nodded slightly. "And even now, this wasn’t Widow’s Lament…it was Death’s." She looked up at him and said, "Do you want to meet your parents?"

"Of course I do! Ohhhh…" Full realization finally dawned upon him. "Lyria, I don’t know about this…"

"I do. It would go perfectly, trust me."

Harry swallowed, thinking hard. On one hand he would finally be able to meet his parents after all these years…and on the other were all the millions of things that could go wrong. He weighed these over and over in his mind, not able to reach a definitive conclusion, even though his heart was telling him to do it.

Lyria reached up and touched his hand lightly with two fingertips, startling him out of his reverie. "Listen to your heart, not your mind. You mind has witnessed too much caused by the use and misuse of these spells to lead you to the right conclusion…but your heart is clear and unbiased."

Harry nodded. "Alright. Then just tell me when."

Lyria gave him a tight smile, and then Hermione arrived with Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey. Cho, Lyria, and Harry were taken off to the infirmary, McGonagall hounding Harry with questions, but he suddenly seemed to have lost the ability to speak, leaving Ron and Hermione alone with a strange feeling of déjà vu. They looked at each other and Hermione wrapped him in a hug, which he returned. After a moment, they broke the embrace and silently walked off to the Gryffindor common room together.

* * *

Lyria led the way down to the room where the whole thing began one last time. Harry shadowed her, an eagerness in his step that she hadn’t ever seen him express before…but then again, she hadn’t known the boy very long.

They paused before the familiar stone wall and Lyria raised her wand and muttered the same old words to open it. "Lithos abiertos" was quickly becoming her most common spell, it seemed. In any case, the wall opened to reveal a bubbling cauldron set on an open fire. The dagger was still sitting on the small table for it, and everything seemed ready to go.

As Lyria started to go around to the back of the cauldron, Harry caught her arm. "Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? I mean, I completely understand if you don’t want to, after all the trouble this spell’s caused."

Lyria smiled at him, a full-fledged smile for once. "Of course I’m willing to do this, how could I possibly deprive you of your chance to speak with your parents? We know for a fact that no one else tried doing this for the Potters, so it should be just fine. I won’t jinx myself by saying nothing will go wrong, but I’m honestly expecting this to go just fine. So don’t worry about it."

Harry smiled back at her as she took her place behind the cauldron. "I really appreciate this, you know. I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay you…"

"Let’s just do the spell first, then you can see about thanking me. Ready?"

Harry nodded. "Ready."

As Lyria began to weave the spell, Harry felt a thrill run through him, one he never expected. Was it really possible that he was standing here, only to be joined by parents in just a few short moments? It was too good to be true. While a twinge of nervousness ran through him, it was overcome by the euphoria of getting his one last chance…and so when the time came for Lyria to take his blood, he didn’t cringe like he had from Wormtail, he gladly allowed the cut to be made. His anxiousness grew as the colors changed from red…to blue…to clear again. Finally, Lyria chanted the final stanza of the spell, and the smoke arose like before, stealing energy from the fires burning all around the castle. However, this time nothing disastrous would happen…this time only good would come of this.

The smoke changed and shifted, as if being sculpted by an imaginary wind. Two shapes began to form, one becoming a man, the other a woman. Their bodies came into focus…and then suddenly, there they were. Harry stood in awe of the two spirits before him, tears coming to his eyes as his dream actually started to come true.

"Mum? Dad?" He croaked.

The woman smiled and embraced him in a tight hug, which harry returned with all his heart. The man hugged them both and they just stood there, enjoying the embrace that should have happened long ago. Lyria stepped back and allowed them to forget she existed, smiling at the happy scene. Tears of joy leaked down Harry’s face as he savored every last moment of his short time with his parents, thanking Jessica Parker for creating the spell and Lyria for finding it. It was the perfect ending to a not so perfect story…his dream come true. And no matter what happened after this, he knew that his memories of this moment would be able to carry him on through whatever faced him in the future.

It was perfect.

Author’s Note: Well, that’s it, the end. Please review, I thrive off them. I’d especially like to know what you thought of Lyria, the plot, if I kept everyone in character, and if you’d be interested in reading any more of my stories. Once again, thanks to Jana for doing a terrific editing job, and thanks to the twelve people (college girl, snitch, Franimal, Anya, HPRules, Jay, Lily, meg, pickleprsn, Katie D., Chips(alias), SageofZelda2000) who thought this was good enough to leave a review the first time around. Thanks for reading!