The girls sat frozen on their seats, jaws slack, eyes wide, as Harry finished explaining what exactly he'd been celebrating.
Multiverse travel. Other worlds. Other universes.
It sounded like something out of a children's storybook, the kind of thing they told children as stories, the type of impossibility that even wizards considered crazy. Harry had started explaining what was called the multiverse theory, a concept so sweeping it encompassed countless realities, potentially even other thems, living different lives in a million parallel worlds.
It was all so mind-boggling that the girls had to take their time to digest the fact that their lover had actually found a way to travel to these universes now. The weight of the implication, that their single reality was merely one grain of sand on an infinite beach, settled over them like a sudden, chilling fog.
If so, what was the point of everything. If all choices are already out there, then everything feels useless. No, they shouldn't think like that.
Tonks had stopped breathing, her hair slowly cycling through incredulous colors like a broken neon sign. Anya blinked slowly, trying to process the scale of his claim, her mind struggling to reconcile knightly discipline with cosmic reality. Daphne… Daphne went very still.
And that was the first sign of trouble.
Harry noticed immediately. There was this thing she did with her hands when she was around people she trusted, that even if her emotions didn't show on her face, her hands said it all.
While the others were cycling between awe and disbelief, Daphne's expression had gone pale, a sudden, cold panic in her eyes. Her hands were gripping the arm of her chair so tightly that her knuckles were turning white.
She wasn't excited. She wasn't even surprised anymore. Immediately, Daphne felt something snick in her stomach, a primal, sickening dread. Was this what Luna had meant by 'he was leaving'? Was this it? The moment she had subconsciously pushed back to her mind after Luna told her, but it kept coming back, and now she finds this out. Was this the cost of loving a King who was, by nature, un-tethered from the world. Her Ice Queen mask, so carefully maintained, shattered completely.
She looked angry, she was angry.
"Daph…?" Harry asked, carefully, confusion in his voice, when he noticed the change.
She slowly lifted her head, and the glare she leveled at him was so cold, so sharp with betrayed fear, he felt the temperature in the room drop five degrees. It was the absolute fury of someone seeing a long-held secret fear confirmed.
Harry physically flinched.
"Wh–what?" he stammered, confused by the sudden.
"So that's it, then?" she said, voice shaking with tightly controlled rage. "You just up and leave? Vanish into another universe and… and go roaming around while we stay here?" The thought of him disappearing into that endless, unreachable void was agony.
Tonks' head whipped toward him so fast Harry heard a faint crack.
"WHAT?!" "Harry— what?" "Is that true?" Tonks demanded, her hair flaring pink, red, purple, back to a chaotic pink mix. "You're actually planning to go through that thing? You're going through with it?"
He opened his mouth. He sighed, the wind momentarily knocked out of his triumphant sails. He nodded.
"Yes. That was the plan from the start. I—"
"WHAT THE HELL, HARRY?!" Tonks snapped, shooting to her feet, her voice laced with genuine panic.
He tried again. "What I mean is—"
"Mean WHAT?" Daphne snapped, finally losing control, the fear transforming into a protective fury. "Did you think we'd just smile and wave as you walk out of reality? That we'd sit here and wait while you disappear? What did you think would happen, that you'd just tell us and we'd be happy to watch you go? Were you just going to leave the whole time, just go and abandon us?"
Harry wanted to protest, he wanted to say he wasn't abandoning anyone, but every thought in his mind evaporated the moment he saw it-
The tears collecting at the corner of Daphne's eyes, bright and crystalline against her pale skin.
He had only seen her cry once before. When Astoria's curse had gotten so bad that she nearly died that one time, and the doctors had said she was getting closer to her time. The memory hit him like a physical blow. Daphne was normally strong, but there are times like this when she just seemed so different from her usual self, so vulnerable.
She wasn't afraid of a lot of things, but growing up with the fear of losing her sister gave her one fear, her fear of the inevitable loss, the sense of being powerless to stop a loved one from simply vanishing.
And while Astoria didn't have a choice, she felt like Harry was abandoning them, abandoning her. How could she not be angry.
Daphne pushed away her chair so hard it skidded across the floor and began pacing, breath sharp, trying to get the suffocating panic under control.
"I… I love you, Harry."
She stopped and looked him directly in the eyes when she said that. The raw declaration, given under duress, was the most profound expression of trust he had ever received. It hit deeper than any Authority.
"And you just want to leave me. I…" she started to say, but before she could finish the sentence, he launched from his side to her front.
In one instant, he crossed the room.
In the next, he captured her lips with his own.
She stiffened, then melted, then wrapped her arms around his neck, letting him anchor her shaking heart. The kiss was desperate, raw, and grounding.
When they finally pulled apart, she pressed her forehead to his chest, covering her face, her voice barely a whisper.
"Don't leave us. Don't leave me."
The room was silent. Tonks swallowed thickly, stepping back, her own fear of Harry leaving momentarily overshadowed by the depth of Daphne's distress. She had never seen the ice queen like this before. Anya stared quietly, eyes gentle, processing the complex surge of emotion.
Harry rested his hand on Daphne's cheek, feeling the frantic pulse beneath his palm.
"Are you okay?" he asked softly, his voice thick with emotion.
She nodded against his chest, her shoulders slowly dropping from their rigid defense.
He pulled her gently back toward the sofa, making her sit beside the other girls. He knelt in front of all three of them, took their hands in his, and looked each of them straight in the eye.
"I am never," he said slowly, clearly, his voice carrying the immovable authority of a King, "going to abandon you. Any of you."
"But you said—" Daphne began, still confused about his initial intent.
He placed a finger on her lips.
"I know what I said. But listen, Daphne, if I wanted to go multiversal traveling, I could have gone long ago," he said, the statement landing with the force of another shockwave.
"What?" Tonks said weakly. "Didn't you just say you completed it today?"
"Technically not true," Harry explained, shifting his grip on their hands. "I was always able to break into the void and leave this world whenever I wanted. My Authority, Fenrir's Claws, is built for rending anything in its path, even reality. Leaving wasn't the problem at all. The core issue, the only thing that has kept me here, was how to get back if I left. That was the missing link I finally achieved today."
He paused and smiled at them, "After all, my family is here, and for that I'll always come back". That made the girls smile.
"Jumping into the void Sea without an anchor is stupid, I'd be adrift in an infinite chaos with no thread leading home. The knowledge from Odin's Wisdom and the Trace Rune in that dagger created a dimensional anchor, an ontological tether, that guarantees the path back home, to you all. If I wanted to disappear, I would've done it back when Voldemort died, or when I became a Campione, or when I fought Geb. But I didn't. Because I didn't want to. I don't want to leave you. You are mine just as I am yours."
"The dagger is the return ticket?" Anya said quietly.
"Exactly," Harry confirmed. "Now I have a way back. Now I can leave, and I will return. So no one will miss me too much," He smiled, a relieved, teasing laugh escaping him as he looked at Daphne, which made Daphne turn a furious red, embarrassed by her earlier outburst.
Then he became very serious, his emerald eyes burning with conviction. "I would never leave you. I already told you all this before, but it seems like I have to say it again just so you can all understand better. I love you all. I love you, Daphne. I love you, Tonks. And I love you, Anya."
He squeezed their hands, his immense power focused entirely on this small, vital promise.
"No matter what happens, whether man or god, no fate, no curse, nothing will ever stop me from loving you all. I will always return home."
That declaration, backed by the raw, undiluted truth of his Desire, finally softened the girls.
Daphne's shoulders relaxed completely. Tonks wiped at her eye quickly, her hair settling into a soft, steady pink of contentment. Anya smiled a soft, relieved smile, the tension visibly leaving her posture.
"Now, how about we spend some time together" he said to them, smiling.
Eight Days Later
Harry spent the next week doing absolutely nothing except sleeping, cuddling, kissing, eating, relaxing, and being smothered by three very clingy girlfriends who kept randomly hugging him as if he might evaporate the second they looked away. Every morning, Tonks would cling to him, demanding to be fed bacon. Every night, Daphne would silently intertwine their fingers while they slept, and Anya, in her own way, made sure every meal was prepared, and every comfort was provided, she was acting both as knight and lover even in the house.
He understood their fear, it was born of profound love, and he intended to cherish that love forever.
But now… now the waiting was over.
He stood in his workshop, eyes half-closed as he focused on the thread in his mind, the golden, gossamer line stretching in his mind, forming a path as it cut through the void, shining like a light line to the world it had reached.
He felt it clearly, saw it.
A destination.
A direction.
A universe waiting.
Behind him, the girls stood at a safe distance near the doorway, a united, nervous front.
Daphne folded her arms, visibly trying to project strength, though her composure was obviously an act, just by seeing the way her eyes twitched. Tonks was biting her lip, her eyes wide with a mixture of anxious and fierce pride. She wore a constant shade of anxious lilac. Anya looked calm, her knightly training holding fast, but her fingers were trembling slightly as she gripped the hilt of Gram.
Harry inhaled deeply, the air of his own world suddenly feeling heavy.
"Alright," he whispered. "First jump."
He reached for the dagger in his mind, felt the Trace rune, the anchor, stable and true, and grabbed hold of the string line, channeling the necessary energy.
Then—
SLASH.
He waved his hand down, and the world tore open.
This time it wasn't the endless black void he had seen before, the chaotic abyss that offered no certainty. Now it showed Vague, colorful silhouettes of a different reality.
Harry couldn't see the other side, but he knew it worked at least. He gazed at the tear, it was terrifyingly beautiful.
Harry turned to his girls.
He smiled and waved, his grin bright and utterly confident, the very picture of a hero heading off on an adventure.
They waved back. Looking like they want to stop him, but had decided to follow his resolve.
Daphne, teary, but trying to be strong, forcing a sharp, if wobbly, nod. Tonks, trembling, trying to grin, managing a small, shaky thumbs-up. Anya, bowing her head in a silent, final blessing and a promise to guard his home.
It was like they were seeing him off to die. He thought, nearly letting out a choked laugh. 'Don't cry, Harry, this isn't goodbye, just a see you later. '
Harry swallowed, the emotion momentarily catching in his throat.
"Alright…" he whispered to himself, feeling the powerful tug of the anchored dagger.
He steeled his face, pushing down the fear and embracing the thrill of the infinite unknown.
He faced the shimmering tear.
And then—
He launched himself forward, disappearing into the tear.
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