The moment Dumbledore spoke the words "Deathly Hallows," something lit up behind Sherlock's eyes.
Instinct told him he'd finally found the spine of this story.
Dumbledore, of course, caught that flicker of a reaction without missing, and asked at once:
"Judging by your expression, you've never heard of the Deathly Hallows before?"
"Obviously not," Sherlock said, arching an eyebrow. "And that's supposed to be my line."
"Quite right, Sherlock."
Dumbledore gave a soft laugh, firelight scattering faint points of light behind his half-moon spectacles.
"Not that it's surprising—very few wizards believe the legend at all. Most dismiss it as a bedtime story to placate children."
Sherlock leaned forward slightly. "Professor, you might as well spell it out for me."
"Very well... Sherlock, I don't imagine you're familiar with 'The Tale of the Three Brothers'?"
Sherlock shook his head, calm and unbothered.
He genuinely wasn't.
Never mind an old legend from the wizarding world even in the Muggle world, when it came to tales embellished by poets and storytellers over the centuries, he'd only ever bothered to retain what was useful to him, never the story for its own sake.
So Dumbledore told him a story.
A rather interesting one.
In an age before Muggles knew the wizarding world existed, there lived three brothers, formidably gifted.
They were kin, and each a superb wizard in his own right, so when they travelled together they feared no danger not even the River of Death that lay across their path, the very symbol of an ending.
An ordinary traveller wishing to cross the River of Death had only two choices: take the ferry, or be swallowed by the water.
But the three brothers, drawing on their considerable power, conjured a bridge of stone with a wave of their hands and walked across without a moment's hesitation.
This act, however, enraged Death, who dwelt within the river.
He had expected to claim the lives of three wizards with ease. Instead, he found himself cheated of three offerings.
Death, proud as he was, refused to admit defeat and refused, even more, to bow before mere mortals.
So, he disguised himself as an old man and caught up with the three brothers on the far side of the bridge.
He praised their cleverness, feigning admiration, and offered each of them a wish—a reward, he said, for having crossed the River of Death without submitting to him.
The eldest of the three brothers was the most arrogant, and the most quarrelsome.
His whole life he had chased after power that would let him triumph over any foe, making enemies without number along the way.
So, he asked Death for: "the most powerful wand in existence."
Death casually snapped a branch from an elder tree growing on the riverbank, stripped the bark with his fingernail, and fashioned it with his own hands into a wand which he presented to the eldest brother.
The second brother was the most deeply devoted of the three, and also the most stubborn.
His whole life he had mourned a lover lost to death, unable to bear the pain of separation.
So, he asked Death for: "the power to call the dead back from death."
Just as casually, Death picked up a stone from the ground and touched it with his fingertip. Fine, delicate markings surfaced across the stone's face, and he pressed it into the second brother's palm.
The youngest brother was the cleverest of the three, and also the humblest.
He alone saw through Death's disguise, and so he was suspicious of everything Death said.
So, he asked Death for "something that would let him escape Death's notice altogether."
Death, who had parted with the wand and the stone easily enough, seemed reluctant this time.
But a promise had been made, and so he removed his own cloak and gave it to the youngest brother.
With that, Death stepped aside and let the three brothers continue on their way.
They walked on together, marvelling over the strange encounter, praising the gifts they'd received.
Further down the road, the three parted ways, each toward his own destination, and from that point their fates diverged completely.
Some time later, the eldest brother got into a duel at a tavern. The Elder Wand, cut from that elder branch, truly was the most powerful wand there was—it helped him defeat his opponent with ease.
But while he slept that night, another wizard slipped into his room under cover of darkness.
That wizard not only stole the wand, but slit his throat besides, to be rid of him for good.
The second brother's fate was not so different from his elder's. He carried the stone home and used it to summon back his dead love.
But the figure he called forth was wrapped always in a cold mist, her eyes sorrowful and distant, and no matter how he reached for her, his arms passed through nothing but air.
Only then did the second brother understand: the Resurrection Stone could summon nothing more than a phantom of the dead, an echo. It could not truly bring his love back to life—it could only draw the living deeper into an obsession with grief.
Day after day he watched his love, so close and yet forever beyond his touch, until one stormy night, unable to endure the torment any longer, he drove a dagger through his own heart so that he might at last be reunited with her, truly, in death.
Though Death had used his own scheme to claim the lives of both the eldest and second brothers, he could never find the youngest.
For true to the promise Death had made him, the cloak Death wore had become an Invisibility Cloak.
It was, indeed, a treasure that even Death himself could not find.
The youngest brother lived out his life in peace beneath that cloak. He married, had children, watched them chase one another through the garden, and grew old, his hair turned grey, his strength faded with the years.
When at last he sensed his life drawing to its close, he sat in his rocking chair, drew off the cloak worn thin with age by now and ran his fingers gently over the pattern woven into the fabric, before passing it on to his own son.
The instant he set the cloak aside, Death appeared before him at last, still wearing the same old man's face he had worn all those years ago.
But the youngest brother showed not the slightest fear. He rose slowly to his feet and greeted Death as he might greet an old friend, shaking his hand, before walking calmly beside him into the night.
"So you see—the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Cloak of Invisibility. These three objects are what the legend calls the Deathly Hallows.
Whoever possesses all three becomes, so the story goes, the Master of Death—which is, I think, the single most seductive line in the entire legend."
Dumbledore had watched Sherlock listen to the whole story in silence, and now, something stirring in him, he spoke.
"So, Sherlock. What do you make of it?"
"A legend is only ever a legend, in the end. It can entertain; it can instruct but it is never the whole truth.
All three so-called Hallows were, by the story's own account, given by Death. They are, in essence, Death's own creations.
So how could possessing them turn a wizard into Death's master? That's a contradiction in terms—a logical paradox."
Dumbledore turned the question back on him. "Perhaps it's simply a figure of speech—meant to represent immortality, or invincibility?"
"I'd rather read it as something closer to a higher wisdom—the understanding that death is an unavoidable part of life, and the acceptance of that fact."
Sherlock leaned back slightly, his gaze drifting to the flames dancing in the hearth.
"The eldest brother in the story never understood, even at the very end, that the greatest power draws the deadliest envy. His own arrogance turned his prize into his death warrant.
The second brother didn't understand either that the living and the dead ought to keep to their separate sides of a line, and that clinging to the past only ruins the present. I once spoke to Harry about exactly this, when he was on his way to a Deathday party and he learned the lesson himself, eventually.
As for the youngest brother in the story—he's the model to follow. He possessed humility, intelligence, a calm nature, a whole constellation of good qualities, and he never let a treasure turn his head.
In the end, not only did he evade Death's pursuit—he passed the Cloak down safely to his own descendants.
And there's something else. You once told me that Harry's Cloak was left to him by his father, and that he's had it with him since his very first year at school." Sherlock paused, and in that instant his gaze turned suddenly sharp.
Under Dumbledore's approving eyes, he spoke, each word:
"So, the Potter family are descended from the youngest brother in the story.
And if the Cloak is confirmed to exist, then the other two objects in the story—the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone must be real as well. Which means these three objects are the core of the matter.
In other words, it's precisely because these three Deathly Hallows existed first that later generations wove around them the legend of three brothers and Death.
The legend is only the sugar coating wrapped around the truth. The Hallows themselves are the hard kernel inside."
Sherlock's reasoning was not without evidentiary support.
The Invisibility Cloak, as an object, was not actually rare.
It was woven from Demiguise hair, and could render invisible whatever it covered, person or object. Barty Crouch Jr., for instance, had once worn just such a cloak hidden in his box at the Quidditch World Cup, evading a good many watchful eyes.
But a cloak woven from Demiguise hair had one fatal flaw.
Its invisibility was not permanent.
Over time, the magic in the hair gradually faded, the cloaking effect would grow weaker and weaker until, eventually, it failed altogether.
Harry's Cloak, inherited from his father, was entirely different.
From James Potter to Harry Potter — more than twenty years — its power to conceal had not diminished in the slightest.
Even moving directly under the noses of formidably powerful wizards, Harry, wearing it, gave away no trace of himself.
Which made it abundantly clear: this was no ordinary Invisibility Cloak. It stood entirely alone.
"Combine that with the legend you've just told me, and once I string the clues together, I can draw the conclusion closest to the truth."
Sherlock met Dumbledore's gaze calmly as he said this.
Behind those half-moon spectacles, Dumbledore's blue eyes flickered with something complicated—parts astonishment at Sherlock's remarkable insight, and a deep, quiet agreement with the weight of his conclusion.
"You're not wrong in the slightest, Sherlock. We spent a great deal of time poring over old records, visiting wizarding families in the most remote corners of the country.
And in the end, we confirmed that the three wizards in the legend were the Peverell brothers—Antioch Peverell, Cadmus Peverell, and Ignotus Peverell.
So, my view is exactly the same as yours:
The Peverell brothers never encountered Death on some lonely stretch of road. They were powerful, dangerous wizards in their own right, and through sheer talent and ingenuity, they succeeded in crafting these three objects of tremendous power.
The legend of the Deathly Hallows is nothing more than a myth later generations layered over their actual deeds."
"My reasoning has no hard evidence behind it, though," Sherlock said flatly, his eyes fixed on Dumbledore's face. "But I can see that you do."
Once again, Dumbledore's eyes widened in surprise, as if seeing the young man before him properly for the very first time.
But he soon broke into a smile, the lines at the corners of his eyes creasing with warmth.
"Sherlock, I believe I've said this to you before but I find I have to say it again.
I am profoundly grateful that you stand on our side of this."
"So am I," Sherlock said. "As far as Voldemort's concerned, the single most unfortunate thing that ever happened to him was running into me."
He said it bluntly, not softening it in the least.
Dumbledore laughed harder still clearly, he agreed completely with Sherlock's confident declaration.
"Antioch was the earliest known owner of the Elder Wand. After his murder, the wand began its long journey, passing from hand to hand.
Every one of its masters died a violent death, because too many coveted it. The wand itself has always been a symbol of endless conflict and slaughter."
As he said this, Dumbledore picked up again the wand he had just set aside.
He ran his fingers gently over the knot-like protrusions along its length, then, under Sherlock's faintly puzzled gaze, held it out to him, saying, each word:
"This. Is the Elder Wand."
Sherlock froze.
This was, without question, a development he had not seen coming.
The Cloak in Harry's possession had already been astonishing enough.
He had certainly never expected that the most powerful wand in legend would turn out to be sitting in Dumbledore's own hand.
He took the wand—one he had already seen countless times before and studied the knots along its length, the same ones Dumbledore had just been running his fingers over.
They looked almost like a string of small beads.
"Fifteen inches."
Sherlock studied it for a moment, head bowed, then spoke in a rapid burst:
"The wood is elder—that matches the legend exactly.
"And the core—unicorn tail hair? Dragon heartstring? Or phoenix feather?"
"No—wait. If this is the Elder Wand, none of those three could be right..."
"Thestral tail feather."
Hearing the answer, Sherlock understood at once.
Only someone who had witnessed death firsthand, and truly comprehended it, could see a Thestral.
That the Elder Wand's core was Thestral tail feather was, in fact, a strangely fitting match for the legend of Death—it echoed, too, the wand's reputation for standing above life and death alike.
He studied the wand, reputedly the most powerful in the world for another moment, his fingertips brushing lightly over the knots, then handed it back to Dumbledore without the slightest hesitation.
Not a flicker of longing was in him as if what he held in his hand were not some priceless, one-of-a-kind treasure, but an ordinary stick of wood.
"And the Resurrection Stone—where is that?"
"Aren't you curious how I came to have it?"
Dumbledore took the Elder Wand back, then asked, with some curiosity of his own:
"Don't you want to know who its previous owner was—how I managed to wrest it from them? It's rather a winding story."
"Who else could it be? Grindelwald, obviously."
Dumbledore: "..."
Finding himself on the receiving end of a look that seemed to regard him as something of an idiot, Dumbledore felt, all at once, thoroughly embarrassed.
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