Hello everybody, here is the last chapter for Gabriel. Thank you everybody that favoured this story and wrote reviews. As it was the first time I took on a darker Harry Potter story I'm especially happy about the great turnout. Happy reading.

Epilogue

Gabriel sat in his safe house and read the note for the third time. How could that have happened? He had always made sure to not be recognised. And now Black and Lupin knew his birth name. He didn't really think it a problem when he threw his card at them at the stone circle. But to think that Lupin had recognised his scent from back when he was a baby. They knew that he was Hadrian Potter. That could pose a problem, but so far they hadn't acted on their knowledge. Dumbledore clearly didn't know. Not that the old man would pose any problem in the future. He had heard that he was forced to stay in his bed full-time now, as the curse was killing him.

But the knowledge that Lupin could track him by scent was worrisome. He would have to stay away if he wanted to keep his other identities a secret as well. But they offered to meet him, talk to him about his parents, the people they had been. No binding commitments. He pondered if he should take them up on the offer. He had always wondered about his parents. Which orphan didn't do? Had they abandoned him or had they died? Normal questions.

He could turn his back to his past. He hadn't had it before. He didn't depend on being Hadrian, or as most called him among his parents' friends, Harry, Potter. He was the assassin Gabriel. He was feared and respected by anybody that heard his name. He also knew that the naming of children had taken a drastic turn. Very few boys were named Gabriel currently. At least in the magical world. He had by now billions of galleons and other currencies stored away at different banks all over the world. He wouldn't suffer poverty any time soon. He could install himself as an upcoming business man or continue playing rich heir.

There were lots of options. He could also work with the masteries that he had. It was fun to baffle the established Potions masters with recipes for potions that they had never even heard about or to present greatly improved versions of known potions. He could also revolutionise the knowledge about runes. He knew at least three alphabets that had been lost to time. If he used that to create devices that had been thought impossible to be created, he could even explain his wealth away. Hell, he could probably simply sit some mastery exams in any country and get more masteries, simply because he had learned so many different branches of magic under Master Kwan.

The question was, when should Gabriel retire? Someday it would have to happen. Well, for now he could earn even more gold by catching the last remaining Death Eaters. And perhaps he could have some more fun with the clean-up in Britain. He would see how much money was in his accounts everywhere before he made the decision what to do in the future. His master had once said when Gabriel had asked him when he had known that it was time to retire that he had felt that it was enough. When he had had enough money to live at the level he thought he deserved for the rest of his life, without having to fear losing it if he was reasonable.

Gabriel knew that he probably already had that amount of money. But it didn't feel right yet.

It took Gabriel two more months to end his involvement in the round up of Death Eaters in Britain. He decided that a long vacation somewhere in the sun was a good idea. He searched through the internet to look for some of the most beautiful places on earth. He wanted to feel at peace. After a long and bloody job like the one in Britain he needed to centre himself again to be able to continue. It was a common mistake to think that assassins could kill without remorse. It was always there. But the best ones were taught to deal with it in different ways.

Getting away from the job regularly was one part of it. Gabriel was as good as he was, as he accepted all parts of his character. The dark parts as well as the light ones. He took care to put the ones he had killed to rest in his mind before taking up a new job. Being influenced by a previous job could mess you up completely and that was something he couldn't afford, or he would die on a job. His opponents were the worst kind of scum and they always had guards, wards, often guard dogs and other protections around their places. If you weren't ready for anything and had a clear mind, you died. It was that simple. Many assassins, some of them famous and with a feared reputation, had died in incidents like that.

It was one thing Master Kwan had trained into Gabriel early on. You had to take care of yourself, both physically as well as emotionally. And if you felt you couldn't continue being an assassin for a while, you went to the ground and took time to recover. Or you quit. Some assassins that had reached that point and realised it, had simply used their impressive abilities in other ways. One had decided that he found peace around animals and had set up a foundation that modernised existing zoos and set up new ones all over the world. Or sponsored sanctuaries. There were many options. Another wanted to prevent that more children went his way and started scholarships for orphans in Africa.

Gabriel knew lots of stories like those. And it helped doing the job, knowing that in the end, if you survived until that point, you could find a niche for yourself. Of course there were others, bad examples, that became addicted to killing. Often they had to be taken out by other assassins, because they weren't controllable anymore. Any assassin could be controlled if you knew how to handle him. And controlling meant that you could easily prevent him going on a killing spree.

Gabriel would wait and see how it would go for him. Right now, he was still young. He could look into what he wanted to do later in his life, after he got sick of his current job. He could, if he cared for it, get to know his brother and the remaining friends of his parents. And Sirius Black and Remus Lupin already had found out about his secret and not told others. Well, he would have to keep an eye on them in some way. No matter what, right now the assassin Gabriel would be unavailable for any job for at least half a year. He had more than earned that long vacation.

Just when Gabriel had decided that the Maldives were the place to go for his vacation, a letter appeared in front of him from thin air. He took it immediately, as he recognised the crest on the letter. It was the crest of his old school. Any alumnus would react to a call from the school. He broke the wax seal and took the letter out. It was a recall to the school, as the headmaster needed to talk to him. He sighed, his vacation would have to be pushed back a little. Well, perhaps he could start his vacation there before he continued on the Maldives and lying on a white sandy beach with a deep blue ocean.

Gabriel appeared at the entrance hall of his former school through the portal that connected the school with the distant main land. The school was placed on copied space of a large island. He was greeted by the waiting headmaster.

"Welcome, Gabriel, or do you prefer your birth name, Hadrian?" The headmaster asked mildly.

"I should have known that you would find out, headmaster. I could never keep any secrets from you. No matter how good my occlumency became," Gabriel replied, "I think it would be alright if you called me Hadrian or Harry, except if you called me back for a job."

The headmaster chuckled and shook his head. He had short grey hair and a well-trimmed grey moustache. He didn't look any day older than fifty, but Gabriel knew that he was over six hundred years old already. The island's powerful magic kept him young and agile.

"No, no, Hadrian, it's nothing like that. I don't need somebody of your skills to deal with a problem. I'm well capable of doing it myself, should the need ever arrive. Not that many people would try to anger me enough to cause that reaction. It's truly amusing how easily you can fool people into believing the most absurd kinds of things. Really, a stone to make an elixir that gives you eternal life?" He chuckled.

"Well, Headmaster Flamel, they would hardly believe that you and your wife have Elvin heritage and therefore age much slower than the average witch or wizard. Everybody only remembers the house elves and they have more or less forgotten about the true elves that once walked on earth," Gabriel replied.

"And it is a true shame. I'm just glad that I was allowed to attend Avalon Academy where the true magical knowledge is kept alive. It's an honour to have been chosen to preserve this haven of magic. And I can't really imagine a greater career than being a teacher to those that appreciate the magic and want to really know what it includes and what you can do with it. Contrary to the closed-minded fools in certain countries," Nicholas Flamel scoffed.

Gabriel smiled. He had always liked his headmaster, even if he couldn't follow the path that the old man had hoped him to follow. Gabriel didn't have the peace in his soul that was needed to become a White Knight. The special forces that protected the magical world from truly evil threats. Never going as far as killing your opponents, but making really sure that they would never be a threat again. It had been the dream of most students to be allowed to join them. Gabriel had been offered a place, but he knew that he wouldn't be happy with them. He decided to go into the shadows, as he didn't feel right in the light.

Gabriel knew that he had been the most talented and powerful student to go through Avalon Academy in over two hundred years. But contrary to what other people would have done, Headmaster Flamel could accept that the damage done to him in his early childhood, before Avalon Academy found him at that orphanage at the age of eight, had been too deep to really heal. The academy had surely managed to lessen the darkness in Gabriel, but it hadn't been able to take it away.

"Why did you call me here, headmaster?" Gabriel asked, "I was just about to go on vacation."

"I suppose you more than earned that vacation, Hadrian. While we didn't interfere, because honestly, if Albus the fool had just acted earlier and not tried to follow ridiculous ideas of what's light and dark, the whole 'war' against Tom Riddle and his followers would have been over in at most a year, we did watch closely. At the beginning it was just a small group that used terror and guerrilla tactics to shake up people. But if the Ministry and Albus had simply acted, made those that belonged to the Death Eaters known as criminals, not a deluded political movement, few would have followed the call of Riddle. And Albus knew who was behind it early on.

"I'm actually really proud of how you handled the situation, Hadrian. While I don't like that you killed all your captives in one way or the other, I can acknowledge that they were too far gone to be trusted to stay alive. And the veil of death is a more merciful sentence than rotting away at Azkaban. The end result is the same in nearly all cases anyway. I suppose you are done with being Europe's most notorious assassin for a while?" Flamel asked.

"Yes, I first need to clear my mind of what I did and that will probably take half a year. There were so many," Gabriel admitted, "And with the revelations of my birth name, there are a lot of things I need to meditate over."

Flamel just nodded. He was old enough to have seen all sides of humanity and the young man in front of him had always been intriguing. Choosing the Angel of Judgement to be your patron was rare, but it suited him.

"I called you, because I wanted to talk to you about your newly discovered heritage. I wasn't sure if you were part of one of Albus idiotic plans or not, but I knew that you needed help. That's why we prevented that you ever got discovered by Hogwarts. The world is constantly changing and I can attest to that better than most. Still, there always have to be people that look out that a certain balance is kept. And if people fail, magic will step up to solve the problems before the magical races are in true danger of being extinct. In Europe there was a large concentration of dark magic that was focused in the Dark Lords Gellert Grindelwald and Tom Riddle.

"Grindelwald was in a way the bigger threat, as he knew what he did and how to gain control over large parts of Europe. But still, he knew that he couldn't kill off magical blood, as it would upset the balance. Gellert had enough druidic heritage to know that much. He didn't have their connection to earth magic, but he knew their rituals and could control elemental spells much better than most people ever will be able to do. He didn't hate a certain group of people, he just considered non-magicals to be lower beings and decided that it was the natural right of wizards and witches to rule over them. He had a much lower personal killing count than Riddle, but he ruined many more lives with his way to conquer the world.

"Nurmengard was the place where he put his magical opponents. The one thing Grindelwald did was planting some ideas into the head of a young muggle, Adolph Hitler, who already held a hatred against the Jews and certain other groups. He only gave the man a small push how to get started and then he let him follow his fanatics, which did the job of distracting the muggles from what Grindelwald did right under their noses. He used their war as justification for all his opinions and many believed them, as they seemed to be proven true with how the muggles killed each other mercilessly. The White Knights were in the end involved in bringing him down, as the one with equal magical potential, Albus Dumbledore, was simply dragging his feet far too long and we needed to prevent that things went out of control.

"The second Dark Lord could have been prevented. I doubt that he would ever have turned into a good person, but he could have found a way to not want to kill all muggles and those related to them, had somebody only really cared for what happened to him. As you know, his story is very similar to your own, Hadrian. Raised in a muggle orphanage, bullied by the other children until he found out how to get back at them, powerful in his magic and intelligent. The difference was that with you, we took care of getting you away from the muggles and found ways for you to stay until you finished your studies. Still, had we failed, you would have outdone both Dark Lords in your raging against the world that wronged you.

"You have managed to find the balance that is needed to work between the traditional sides in conflicts, dark and light. You are in the grey, where things aren't absolute. While I would have loved for you to find happiness with the White Knights, I have realised that your destiny is a different one. Hadrian Potter, you have awoken the powers of a being that has been slumbering for over a thousand years. You, my student, have been awoken as a twilight walker. I know that the Potter line was long rumoured to have some kind of special bloodline, but now it is clear that it is more a peculiarity of acting to growing up under difficult circumstances. Potters that awake that peculiarity will always grow beyond their normal potential and become more than their peers. It could go into three directions, light dark or grey. Most drift into light or dark, becoming powerful champions for either side. In fact, the last true twilight walker to walk on earth has lived around the time of Lady Morgana and Lord Merlin.

"You'll find more and more powers coming to you. Some strange and hard to control. I advise you to take your time to properly learn how to control them. You may access our academy's library, as I doubt you would find any documentation on this special kind of person anywhere else in the world. I don't know if your brother would also show some signs of the heritage, as it needs a special kind of mind to awaken the powers. But you need to be warned. Twilight walkers have always stood between the extremes and have been keepers of the balance. And as much as you would deny doing so intentionally, your choice in targets and refusal to kill children, actually is part of your heritage," Flamel revealed to Gabriel.

"I see. I'll gratefully accept your offer to use the library. But after my vacation I think. I'll come back if something happens that pushes me to come earlier, but I don't think so," Gabriel replied.

Flamel chuckled.

"Certainly. Just know that our gates will always be open for you, Hadrian. Oh, and one other thing, as I know that the problem has been troubling you for a while. Each keeper of balance in history, be they twilight walkers of simply chosen ones, has been given a true soul mate to fulfil their destiny. They don't always meet them early in their lives, but they will meet and realise that they belong together. When it happens, you will know. Trust your instincts, they won't lead you astray," Flamel informed Gabriel.

"Thank you, that's actually truly assuring," Gabriel replied smiling a little.

"Well, then I can just wish you fun and that you manage to regain your personal balance," Flamel said.

"Thank you, headmaster, until next time," Gabriel accepted and left the man.

The Maldives were truly a wonderful place to clean your soul from a long job of a darker nature. He had rented a villa for himself for two months. He planned to travel to another country after this, simply doing some sight-seeing. He had wanted to see a few places that Master Kwan had described to him during his training and he especially wanted to see Japan. Kyoto and Osaka were said to be especially beautiful at certain times of the year and he planned to see them. Then the beaches of Izu or the snowy mountains in Hokkaido. Africa would also be part of his travels, going onto a photo safari had been a dream of his when he had been a young child. And now he had the time, the money and the determination to do all of this. The first two months would be dedicated to dealing with his actions during the job in Great Britain. Then he would let his soul heal from seeing all the beautiful parts that the world had to offer. Maybe he would even offer Black and Lupin to come visit him while he was in Africa. He didn't have property there, so nothing could be used to be tied to him.

And what headmaster Flamel had told him, well, he could live with being a keeper of balance in the world. He was realist enough to know that there needed to be somebody that took care that things didn't get out of control. Somebody that wasn't limited to the ways or police forces or would go too far. Twilight walker, well, it certainly had a nice ring to it. For the time being Gabriel would be this keeper of balance, taking out the truly evil guys, while protecting the innocents, though mainly he considered children innocents. Adults rarely were. It was simply a fact of life. And adults had the choice to learn defending themselves against normal threats quite well.

And once he felt that he had done enough as Gabriel, well, he could continue being a keeper of balance without resorting to his current main job. He had the education to work the system from behind the scenes. Perhaps it would be a funny idea to set up a foundation in his name. Gabriel Foundation, oh man would some people choke when they heard it. A foundation that used some of his money earned with a bloody job to look after orphans all over the world. Yes, he would certainly keep that idea in mind.

I know that this leaves some threads open, but I decided that I didn't want to write a reunion at this point in time. Gabriel doesn't have any true connections to his family and their friends. Therefore, I left it as an option to happen in the future. And I don't really plan a sequel to this. Till the next story.