“It really has been a while, Harry my boy”

Harry stood with mouth agape, unable to find the words to express his disbelief.

“Professor… Dumbledore…?” Harry asked, trying to get confirmation for what his eyes saw but his brain refused to believe.

Dumbledore looked at Harry through his half moon spectacles, his eyes twinkling and smiled gently at him. Seeing that smile, Harry couldn’t help but choke up a little.

“Is this a dream?”, Harry asked.

Seemingly understanding Harry’s trepidation, Dumbledore continued to smile gently as he placed a hand on Harry’s shoulder comfortingly.

“This is not a dream, Harry” he said. Dumbledore paused for a moment before continuing.

“However, this is not strictly reality either.”

Feeling overwhelmed with everything that seemed to be happening lately, Harry hung his head.

“I just don’t know if I can handle everything that’s been happening…”

Dumbledore showed a sad smile as he answered, “I can’t even begin to imagine everything you have been through, Harry. More pain than most people have ever had the misfortune to endure or the capability, for that matter. However, that doesn’t mean you should give up Harry. Even if you have lost a lot, you do still have a lot to live for”

Harry frowned at those words, his anger started rising. “What exactly do I have to live for? Everyone close to me seems to just die. My only purpose in life is to stop Voldemort or die trying. Everyone looks at me as if I am the only one who can stop him even though I’m as lost as them, all because of some stupid prophecy by a loony before I was even born!”

Before he knew it, Harry had started to yell. He knew he was just taking his frustrations out on Dumbledore. However, he couldn’t help but spew everything he had been bottling up for the past few years.

“When I try to do the right thing and actually inform people that Voldemort was back, they brand me a liar, punish me and do everything possible to make my life miserable. Those very bloody people are the ones who look to me to solve the same problems they themselves ignored! Not even a please or a single bloody thank you! Should I just go martyr myself for the sake of such ungrateful idiots? All for what, so even if I do stop Voldemort, they would just do something so stupid that another dark lord would just rise in his place!?”

Harry felt his throat turning hoarse from all the yelling. Dumbledore just looked at him with a sombre expression on his face, a hint of guilt and pity mixed into it. When he noticed that Harry was finally starting to calm down, he spoke up.

“It all does sound rather unfair doesn’t it? I do admit, I have played quite a leading role in you reaching this point, Harry. I never really thought you should Martyr yourself, though considering everything that has happened, I wouldn’t really be surprised if that is how the situation would have ended up.” Dumbledore said.

“Hindsight is quite the funny thing isn’t it? Once everything is over, only then do we see just how badly we messed up.” he continued in a self-mocking manner. He paused for a moment before he started talking again.

“I have a story I want you to listen to, Harry. Though, I’m not sure if it would be of any use to you”

Harry took a deep breath to calm himself before nodding his head.

“Have you ever heard of the Deathly Hallows, Harry?”, asked Dumbledore.

Harry shook his head and looked at Dumbledore with curiosity.

“Then, sit back Harry, this is quite the interesting, albeit seemingly fictional tale”, Dumbledore spoke with a smile and then waved his hand and two plush sofas appeared out of thin air.

Making himself comfortable in one of them, Harry turned his attention back to Dumbledore who had situated himself in the other one.

“Several hundred years ago, the three Peverell brothers, Antioch, Cadmus and Ignotus, were travelling at night and made their way to an extremely dangerous river. Being as gifted as they were in the magical arts, they just waved their wands and a bridge appeared for them to cross safely.

As they were crossing the bridge, they were confronted by Death himself. Feeling like he had been cheated of their lives, Death confronted them but the sly liar that he was, Death congratulated the brothers on making it safely across the river and said he wanted to give them rewards.” narrated Dumbledore.

“The first brother, Antioch, wished for the strongest wand. One that would never lose a duel. So Death broke a branch off a nearby Elder tree and made the Elder wand for him.

The second brother, Cadmus, arrogant man that he was, asked for the power to bring loved ones back to life. Death picked up a rock from the riverbed and made the resurrection stone for him.

The third and most sensible brother, Ignotus, didn’t trust Death and asked to be able to leave the river and move on without being followed by Death. Death gave his own invisibility cloak to him.” Dumbledore spoke with a twinkle in his eyes.

“The three brothers went their own way after that point but the first two brothers ended up suffering Death’s tricks. The first brother Antioch, went and killed the man he had once lost to in a duel and then boasted about the power of his wand and how it would allow him to win any duel, inciting the envy and greed of others around him. Eventually, a wizard slit his throat and stole the wand. That wand eventually made its way from wizard to wizard, almost every time by way of murder.

The second brother, Cadmus, used the stone to resurrect his dead lover but found that she was just an imitation of her original self. She was cold, lifeless and miserable. Unable to take it anymore, he finally killed himself so he could truly join her. The stone was passed down from generation to generation in his family.

The third brother, Ignotus, on the other hand, kept the cloak on till he was an extremely old man and then finally handed the cloak down to his son, greeted death as an old friend and passed on. The cloak was also passed down in his family from generation to generation.

Those three objects together form the Deathly Hallows. It is said that the one who manages to unite all three would become the master of death.” Dumbledore spoke, coughing slightly. He then waved his hand and a small table appeared with a pitcher of juice and two glasses, which he then proceeded to pour for himself and Harry.

“Though, that is how the story goes, I myself have a theory that they did not meet Death but were in fact, three extremely powerful wizards and had created the deathly hallows.” Dumbledore paused for a moment and then continued.

“You must be wondering why I told you such an old story for no reason, right Harry?” asked Dumbledore.

“Yeah. Though it was interesting as you said but I really don’t see why you’re telling me all this right now” replied Harry, puzzled.

“As I said earlier Harry, hindsight is a funny thing. Though the story might not seem to have anything to do with us but if we think about it, the deathly hallows actually tie us together in a way we wouldn’t expect.” Said Dumbledore and then continued with a sad smile.

“Several decades ago, I met a young man called Gellert Grindelwald. We hit it off immediately since our ideologies were rather similar and we were actually planning on how to have wizards in control of muggles, ‘For The Greater Good’” said Dumbledore.

“Grindelwald!? That dark wizard Grindelwald!? And wait…control muggles?” Harry asked in shock.

“The very same. And yes Harry. It is one of my biggest regrets that I was ever a part of it but I fooled myself saying it was for the greater good and actually ended up with ideologies rather similar to Voldemort. Though, I would like to believe that my thoughts were less cruel but there is no saying what would have happened if I had actually gone down that path” replied Dumbledore with a look of guilt and sadness.

“Anyway, as I was saying. A short while after Grindelwald and I started discussing these matters, a rather horrible situation took place. My brother confronted me and told me to stop the rubbish I had been doing with Grindelwald and stay away from him. I, of course, tried to pacify him and told him that I knew what I was doing. However, at that time, Gellert showed up and the three of us ended up in a duel.

My ailing sister tried to stop the duel and I don’t know who was responsible but a stray curse hit her, claiming her life” said Dumbledore sadly.

“Grindelwald fled the scene immediately while Aberforth and I stood there, horrified at what we had done.

Several years later, I heard that Grindelwald had taken up the slogan of ‘For the Greater Good’ and started doing various atrocities all over Europe. I finally went and stopped him. The spoils of that battle for me, was the Elder wand” said Dumbledore, waving his hand and a shimmering vertical line appeared in midair.

“The resurrection stone was passed down for generations and eventually got converted into a ring, one that was passed to Marvolo Gaunt, one of Slytherin’s descendents and eventually ended up in the hands of Voldemort, his grandson” Dumbledore waved his hand again and a circle formed around the line, enclosing it.

“The invisibility cloak that I passed on to you is another one of the hallows, the one owned by Ignotus, one of your father’s ancestors so it came down to you” waving his hand another time and a triangle formed around the circle.

“Thus, the three hallows actually ended up tying the three of us together.”