I would like to thank my beta, Kuilin.

Chapter 45.

Space Travel, Part II: Possibilities

6:13 am, July 21st, 1993

On and around Harry's desk in his trunk, stacks and stacks books on astronomy, astrophysics, history of space exploration, science fiction, and other related topics scattered all over the place.

After Harry copied down yet another equation that they might use later, he glanced at his mechanical watch, and wondered if this would be an acceptable time to wake everyone up. A bright ball of light appeared in front of Harry at this time. With the power of Severus' locket, there were only a limited number of people whose names were on a whitelist that could approach Harry with their Patronus, so this got to be something urgent. In Mad-Eye's raspy voice, the Patronus said: "Son, Lucius Malfoy requested an immediate meeting with you, stating that he thought of something rather important, and he refused to let me know."

Harry glanced down at his draft on the possible route to the Moon.

-Lucius can't guess out that we should go to the Moon, can he? No, shrewd as the ex-Lord Malfoy is, he is not sharp on this kind of stuff. Something about Grindelwald, then.

Harry replied: "Send him in, my headquarter office."

-Hopefully, this isn't something about how Grindelwald might also know a Prophecy. Err, since Hermione and I decided not to reveal our guess to the rest of them, especially, not to someone meets Grindelwald on a daily basis, so if Lucius has thought of the same thing, he has every reason to consider this an important secret that he should only tell me.

-Geez. However, I do have to listen to what Lucius has to say, just in case that he has thought of some other important matters.

Harry reluctantly packed up his space travel plans, and sighed. Keeping so much secrets from almost everyone could be a burden, mentally, physically, and now, on his limited time budget as well. It was at these times, Harry understood why Dumbledore might appear to be a bit insane.

Harry trudged up the stairs, and left his trunk. He quickly washed, changed, and Floo-ed to his headquarter office with the Auror trio that was protecting him. Once in his office, Harry worked on the fireplace a bit to allow Mad-Eye and Lucius to come through, and the two quickly entered from the green flames.

As Mad-Eye was reluctantly applying protection and privacy charms around Harry and Lucius while excluding himself out, Harry sized up the blond who grew a special preference for the holding cell in DMLE ever since he guessed out that Grindelwald saw through their pretence of Dumbledore being around, and Voldemort might be among the guards. Harry couldn't help but to hold some distain upon the nobleman who cherished his own life so much, yet had cold-bloodedly killed at least seven others. However, since Lucius' mind was still useful now, and since he was Draco's father, Harry kept the feeling to himself.

After Mad-Eye was done with the spells, Lucius began in Parseltongue: "Lord Potter, ass I thought of Grindelwald'ss behavior yessterday, hiss urgentnesss jumped up a bit after he ssaw the advanced Patronuss. Thiss indicatess it had ssomething to do with the Patronuss, posssibly the powerful life magic in it. And hiss biggesst ssecret, whatever it iss, should be death magic. Maybe, the advanced Patronuss can block or interrupt the ritual that made him invincible."

Harry's mouth slightly opened: Ahh, that - that is another possibility, actually. And the chances aren't bad. This is indeed why we need a human expert on our side. On another thought, the true Patronus, plus Hermione's almost infinite vitality, should be able to block most death magic. Hmm, this is why I should always listen to my subordinates - they do come up with ideas that I have not thought of. I suppose, Lucius wouldn't dare to wake Voldemort up at 6 am, and tell him such important secrets.

Harry replied: "Thiss iss a very good guesss indeed, Mr. Malfoy."

To Harry's slight surprise, Lucius continued to reveal another important guess: "And the Elder Wand, which iss alsso called the Death Sstick, might have gained itss name for a reason."

Some human part of Harry instinctively wanted to reject the indication that the wand made by his ancestors could be used in something that evil, but the other parts of Harry knew better, so he kept his mouth closed.

Lucius hissed: "After I learned the Patronuss, Sseveruss had asked me a riddle, 'what cannot be killed?'At that time, it sseemed to me that the ansswer wass death. However, I don't really have the mental capacity to conquer death ass you and the Lady do."

Harry made a mental note to himself that he should tell Severus to be more discrete with important secrets with his best friend, no matter how much that black-haired man might want Lucius to live. And then, Harry's exceptional vivid imagination depicted a scene where he himself had to decide whether or not to reveal a secret to Hermione that could potentially save her life, and Harry found himself unable to withhold the information. Harry wasn't that sure whether he should lecture Severus anymore.

-In a sense, Severus had been a very lonely man, just like I was before I met Hermione. The friendship from the Malfoys might be the best thing ever happened to him since, err, since my mother broke up with him. Moreover, Severus has saved Lucius a couple dozen times, which might also contribute to his protectiveness toward Lucius.

Then, Harry remembered what happened when another man forced Severus to face the possibility of his best friend's death.

Harry felt cold sweat running down his spines: Thanks to Hermione, I am NOT Voldemort, and I will not become Voldemort.

Lucius' words continued without Harry's input: "Lasst night, as I thought over it, I realized that people might think there iss another thing that could not be killed - ssomeone or ssomething between life and death, for example, a wizard without a pounding heart."

And then Harry got it. From the tale of The Warlock's Hairy Heart, a powerful wizard could survive without a pounding heart for quite a while. From what Antioch Peverell understood of life and death, someone without a heart yet still breathing and thinking could be considered "between life and death". Probably, Antioch took out his own heart, made it into the core of the Elder Wand. Considering himself incapable of being killed, Antioch used the Elder Wand to challenge Death, and failed - the killing curse could kill everything with a brain, not everything with a heart.

Lucius' guesses added another layer to the story: "If the taless about the Peverell brotherss are true, then the brotherss musst have dessigned powerful magic to conquer Death. Probably, the wand with the core of a breathing human'ss heart can alsso be conssidered ass ssomething between life and death, and wieldss the power to transsform death magic into other typess of magic. In thiss way, Antioch Peverell could utilize the almosst infinite magic from Death, he also thought that he couldn't be killed by Death, and he tried."

-Oh wait, Voldemort knew how to summon Death with a rope which has hanged a man and a sword which has slayed a woman. He might have gained this knowledge from Slytherin's pet snake, and Salazar might gain this knowledge from his ancestors, the Peverell brothers. It all fits.

Harry briefly imagined the sad scene that his powerful and brilliant ancestor made the Death Stick with his own heart, how he summoned Death himself, how he bravely dueled with the last enemy of any sapient being, and how his misconception about life and death became the fatal error in his plan. However, since Death didn't devour all human beings more than one thousand years ago, probably Antioch had sent Death back to wherever it belonged before he died.

Lucius stayed silent for a while, as if mourning for Antioch together with Harry, and then continued: "Grindelwald might have ussed the Death Sstick to transsform the death magic produced by the killing of Muggless to hiss own magic, and hence made himsself invincible."

Harry had to admit, Lucius' deduction made a lot of sense. Actually, his deduction made too much sense.

-Is this the advantage of having a genuinely dark wizard on our side? Or is it another incident with the "Protego Vitamaxima"?

-However, if this is Voldemort again, why did he tell us this? Learning to be nice?! No, this is way too nice.

-On the other hand, Lucius is indeed a human expert, and it is this man who came up with the original idea about the Elder Wand and the Malfoy's family wand before.

Harry searched the blond wizard's face, and found that Lucius looked at him in an expectant way.

-Oh, right. I have promised him that I would negotiate a one hundred years deduction in prison sentence if he finds out what Grindelwald's secret is.

-Don't tell me that Voldemort told Lucius the secret, because he wanted Lucius to have a shorter prison sentence. That is simply ridiculous!

-Ah, I know someone with this motive. Severus Snape. Severus might have left hints in Lucius' mind, memory charmed Lucius, and probably also memory charmed himself.

Harry didn't quite know what to do with the black-haired wizard who was probably too loyal to his best friend by this point. Harry breathed in, and breathed out.

"Mr. Malfoy, if everything you ssaid -" Harry glanced at Lucius who was about to protest, and changed his sentence, "If the gisst of thiss iss verified, I will hold my sside of the bargain."