Disclaimer: I do not own, or claim to own Harry Potter or any affilliated merchandise.
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A pair of eyes shot open, only to close a second later. David wondered why everything was so bright. He rubbed his eyes, attempting to rid them of of the bright spots dancing across his vision. Slowly, excruciatingly slowly that is, the spots and the light began to fade away. For a few moments, he attempted to remember what had happened. Yet, it eluded him. Perhaps something had exploded near him? But then his ears would likely be ringing as well. Maybe he'd looked into the sun for too long? No, it was nighttime last he remembered, so no sun, obviously. Maybe a car turned its brights on as it drove by? Had he even been walking along a road? A nearby shout had David whipping around to see its origin.
"What do you mean i'm dead!"
David would have smiled except for two things. First; he found the statement depressing, and second; if the statement was, in fact, true. Then he was rather upset that his sister was here with him. That is, if it was indeed his sister he was hearing.
His vision, having finally returned in full to him now, finally allowed David take in the surroundings as he made his approach to his sister.. They were rather unimpressive surroundings unfortunately. David stood inside a building with no windows or even doors. Going on forever to infinity. It reminded him of run down prisons but without the cells. With unpainted concrete walls and what seemed to be poorly maintained torch holders along them, David felt that this was a rather dreary setting for the after life.
"I can't be dead! There's no reason! None!" His sister (there were definitely no more doubts as to that) screamed once more. He slowed his approach a bit. His sister, was facing away from him, facing a giant cloaked figure. Well giant in comparison to his now openly sobbing sibling. The cloaked entity (because David was almost certain this wasn't a person) stood at seven or eight feet tall. His cloak was a void, a localized black hole David thought to himself. It covered every part of him, even including a hood that hid its face within its shadows. Every part of it was immaculate, save for one tiny section on the bottom right side (the entities left he supposed) that was clearly torn away. A cold air seemed to exist around its entirety and David shivered as the cold seeped into his very person.
"I was alive! I was eating lunch! Did I just keel over in the Mcdonalds or something?!" She shouted. David figured that kicking the bucket in a Mcdonald's was about as likely as getting into a car wreck, which is to say, very likely. That aside, he could easily hear her desperation, her disbelief. David connected the dots. He would be hard pressed not to. This cloaked figure was such an exact representation of what he assumed Death to look like that David could hardly believe it. This entity was, if he was correct in his guess, was the direct representation of Death
"That couldn't happen! I was healthy I am healthy!" He couldn't really tell what Death's current expression was. However, he imagined that Death didn't really appreciate being yelled at. It would probably be for the best if he intervened before his sister said something she would regret. David really didn't want to listen to this for too much longer anyways.
"I take it we're dead then?" With a surprised gasp Autumn turned on her heel so fast David was surprised she hadn't suffered whiplash.
"wha-David! Why are you here?" she glanced back to the cloaked entity, perhaps looking for an answer to her questions. There was no response. It didn't even move. She turned back to him and repeated her previous question. Though with a more… hysterical voice. David knew her well enough to know that she was someone who usually dealt with life changing events fairly well. Then again, this was a bit extreme so he decided not to comment on her hysteria.
"Hya Sis!" It was perhaps a tad more cheerful response than appropriate.
" Anywho, how's life been treating you here?" A droll smile made its way onto his face then. He didn't really know what was happening, but he was inclined to believe the old saying that 'Laughing is good for the soul' mainly because he struggled to see much good in this situation. Plus, he had a feeling that his near future may be taking a significant nose dive from bad to worse. A little humor might help alleviate his nervousness.
"We are dead." she said. Placing just enough space in between the words to make it sound like she was talking to a particularly slow child.
"Yippy!" A pair of jazz hands reinforced his sarcastic response. The Autumn scowled at him.
"How can you joke about this!" She seemed a bit conflicted after that statement, as if she couldn't decide on raging at him or crying to her heart's content. It was probably some of both.
"Listen," He started. "If he is who I think he is, then the last thing you want to do is yell at him till your head explodes… He could probably make that happen to." He mumbled out the last part sending a suspicious glance Death's way. His simple and rather short retort however, was enough to leave her without a proper response. Deciding to take advantage of this brief moment of silence, he made a beeline for the cloaked entity, aka, Death. Regardless of the risks, he did want to know how he, and apparently, his sister had died and what was to happen to them now.
"Are you Death? Err… like the Grim Reaper or… something " He asked. However he found that being in such close proximity to a being of such power left him nervous. That is, more so than he already was... David caught himself roughly twisting his fingers in a vain attempt to comfort himself.
Suddenly, Death leaned forward, a cold rattling breath came forth from within its cloak. David took a step back on instinct. Death just stood there bent slightly over, peering unnervingly straight through David's soul. An additional step back did nothing to lessen David's new found fright
"He spoke to me earlier, told me we are waiting for someone, guess that's you. He hasn't said anything since." Autumn, having now calmed herself down, (not really if the waver in her voice was any indication) informed him. David barely kept himself from jumping from the sudden words.
"Hmmm." David gazed a few more moments at Death before turning to his sister. "You know, I always assumed he was into the sending us to heaven or hell kind of business. Not the 'I'm going to bring you to some middle ground and stare at you and your sister' kind of business." He replied. His eyes glancing occasionally at Death hoping for a reaction beside the simple movement. He didn't want to live the rest of his eternity like this.
Autumn shrugged her shoulders. David turned back to facing Death, he contemplated his choices for a few moments. Then he stuck out his tongue. Still no reaction.
"Please don't try to antagonise him… I don't want to go to... hell. Do you?" Autumn commented, forgetting that she too had been antagonising Death if but in a different way. David doubted being rude to an entity would be enough to elicit such a drastic response… but what did he know? However, before David could respond, Death raised his arm. Pointing first at Autumn then at him before speaking.
"Dead in one realm, alive in another. Both the ambitious and the cunning, yet wisdom is lacking and morals conflicting. Only each other will you have, The Dragon and the Snake. A Gryphon oppressed, A Basilisk restrained, rescued from itself, liberated from others."
Death stopped then, his words, spoken with power like thunder, seemed to ingrain themselves into their minds. David found he could recall each word exactly as spoken. Yet he had no understanding of the words. But given that they were spoken by Death itself, David felt inclined to learn their meaning.
"Both of you shall awaken in a realm different from that which you came. A realm of magic, where Wizard and Witches hide from those without magic but control anything with magic that does not meet their standards. You must save them, for they are leading themselves into ruin. You must prepare them for the second rise of a self proclaimed dark lord. Work together, each of you has a purpose. Are you ready?"
David got the distinct feeling that saying no wouldn't go over very well. So he didn't say anything. He wasn't about to agree to something he had no knowledge of. Magic? A dark lord? Saving the world? Actually that last part sounded like fun, but still. Autumn likewise must have had parallel thoughts, she was just standing there not unlike himself.
A sudden drop in the already chilly temperature and a fairly aggressive narrowing of the eyes from their host had David rethinking his choice not to say anything.
"Well, I don't see much of a problem with this. That is, other than that I don't know anything about magic. Or defeating dark lords, or really that much of anything at all to be honest." So much for not agreeing on anything.
Autumn gave him a look that told just how dumb of a response she thought that was. As for Death, well, he chose to ignore the extra comments and focused his attention on Autumn.
"What-what about our family?" She asked after a few more moments. She had always been the bolder one he supposed.
"Your paths have diverged from theirs, perhaps in the after life you may see them again." The response didn't instil a lot of confidence in their chances of seeing their family again. Though, it did remind him. How did they die again?
"O-okey but… wait, how did we die?" Autumn asked. David figured it was a fairly lucky coincidence they were thinking along the same lines. He never would have dared ask.
"Death is only one of many gateways, whoever told you that you had died?"
David shared a surprised look with Autumn.
Death raised a single hand, his sleeve sliding down far enough for David to glimpse two bony fingers and a thumb.
Autumn, not finished looking for answers, or asking them, attempted to ask one last question.
"If we didn't die then how did…"
David, as Autumn began forming her question, realized they would likely never know how they got here.
With a snap of Deaths raised fingers, David felt himself descend into unconsciousness.