Interesting objects the Deathly Hallows are, it was said they granted the user eternal life, it granted them the status of Master of Death, but Harry knew that Immortality came at a horrible price, and most of the time, wasn't truly Eternal Life.
The Hallows came to him. He'd reach down for his phoenix wand and find the rough wood of the Elder Wand in his grip. He woke up with the Stone present on his wedding ring one day and had to glamour it so Ginny wouldn't know. He'd go for naps on his couch and had woken up to find the Invisibility Cloak covering him.
He was freaked out, for sure, but didn't think much of it. It wasn't anything too concerning, after all.
But then something happened to Harry that truly made him frightened. He began to not feel hunger. When Ginny had been off at a Quidditch Championship, and the work at the Ministry had been heavy, he hadn't been thinking much of dinner.
It was days afterwards when he realized he hadn't eaten a single crumb of food for the entire week and hadn't even felt his stomach rumble, that Harry realized something was up.
Still, he could do nothing and tried to push it to the back of his mind in the meantime.
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Ginny lay beside him, gently snoring. He yawned and stood up to get ready for work. The morning light streamed in through a crack in their curtains, and Harry reached for the dresser for his clothes.
Suddenly, as he reached out, he felt a sudden overwhelming itching sensation, everywhere on his skin, he groaned and fell backwards onto his arse.
Glancing down at his skin, which had already begun turning a deep red, Harry's form shuddered for a moment, feeling as if the flesh was being scraped from his bone with hundreds of forks.
Ginny sat up from her sleep, rubbing her eyes. He was moaning loudly now and curled up on his side. She rolled over, and upon seeing him, jolted fully awake, and raced over to his side.
"Harry!? What's wrong?" She insistently shook his shoulder, and he groaned, the pain roiling all over him.
Suddenly, it felt as though a bubble had burst inside him, and for a moment the pain reached it's highest point yet. His senses were muted for a second, where silence and darkness prevailed.
His hearing returned, and all Harry could hear was screaming. He cracked open his eyes and was immediately assaulted by all the blood. He brought his hand to his head and stared in pain-induced confusion at the flesh-less limb.
He looked upwards to a Ginny who was backed up against the wall, her face contorted into fear and horror. He stood slowly, his bones clacking against the wooden flooring.
Anything inside his rib cage fell out then, the lungs and heart squelching when they hit the floor, splashing blood. Ginny was shaking madly, staring as blood ran down his white bones.
She wasn't the only one afraid. He trembled, staring down at his body, which could only be held together by magic. He stared down, horrified, at what was left of his body.
Thinking fast, he grabbed his wand from the dresser and sent a stunning spell, and an Obliviate at Ginny. As much as he loved her, she was not able to keep secrets very well, and Harry wasn't even going to contemplate what the Witches and Wizards of Britain would do to him.
He vanished the mountains of gore that littered the room. He must have exploded violently by the way it was strewn about. Not an inch of organic material covered his bones, only blood ran down his white skeleton.
Taking a second to gather himself as much as he could in a situation like this, he brushed the mahogany wood of the dresser and was surprised by the sensation of touch. He had not a single nerve ending on his body, yet still could feel.
Coming back to reality, he stared forlornly at Ginny. He couldn't take her with him, and he couldn't stay here with her. He had to leave, preferably as soon as possible.
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He left the house, a heavy winter cloak over him, and gloves hiding his thin bones. He grasped the Elder Wand delicately in his hand and cast an illusion spell to darken his hood, obscuring his skull from anyone who tried to see underneath the hood.
He'd tried to cast a spell earlier with his Holly wand, only for the wand to spark and sputter within his grip, and decay into a rotted piece of wood. He resigned himself to using the Elder Wand.
He'd peered in the mirror a few minutes prior and discovered his eyes to be two dimly pulsing orbs of purple-black within the eye sockets of his skull. It made Harry terrified. It seemed that even among wizards, he would always be a freak.
He twisted in his steps and was squeezed into the tight sensation of apparating.
Arriving in Diagon Alley, he walked quickly towards Knockturn, many eyes turning suspiciously on him, clothed as he was. Knockturn Alley held the same pungent smell it'd had for years, as well as the hurried steps of wizards off to businesses quite foul.
In his work as an Auror, he'd been in the Alley many times, and quickly found his way to a popular Tavern of the Alley. The Creeping Shadow was a place well known throughout the Auror Forces, mostly for being the place where many a human mage had gone in before disappearing forever.
A bold-lettered sign was nailed beside the door, proudly proclaiming 'NON-HUMAN ONLY AREA, ANY MAGE WHO COMES IN DOES SO AT THEIR OWN RISK!'.
Harry wasn't quite sure he qualified as human anymore, and grasped the knocker on the door with his gloved hand, and have it a good whack. A slit opened in the wood, and a pair of violet eyes peered down at him before the slit was shut again, and the door opened.
A female form dressed in rune-covered battle armour stood beside the door, and Harry recognized the violet eyes. She peered down at him, curious.
"Well, What are you then? Mysterious vampire of the night? Better not be human, the last one got eaten for supper." She jeered at him. He sighed and dropped his hood.
"I don't quite think I'd be a tasty option on the menu, Miss." He stated dryly.
A soft gasp escaped her, and she stared down at him, her curiosity intensifying. He looked back up at her, wait for her to move so he could enter. She stood still for a couple seconds longer, before he walked up, and shoved her aside.
He headed in the direction of a booth, and the woman, who he assumed to be a bouncer of sorts, followed in his direction, sitting gracefully across from him when he plopped down into the torn leather seat.
"Isn't common for a 'Skele to be 'round these parts, last one we got was... hmm, 1856? Something like that." She stated. He ignored her momentarily, taking off his gloves, and grasping a menu delicately.
"...intestines...raw heart...liver...pig brain..." He mumbled as he scanned the menu, looking for a more 'human' oriented meal.
"Methinks you'll be wanting one of the human ones, they're on the last page." The woman stated, popping a piece of gum into her mouth. He inclined his head and decided on the Prime Rib.
A waiter finally came over and eyed him and the bouncer curiously. Harry believed she was an Arachnidicova, a subset of the Fae species, judging by the enormous spider resting on her shoulder, and webbing lining her hair.
"Human Tea and the Prime Rib, please." He stated. The bouncer nodded at the waiter, seeming to communicate something unheard.
"Gotcha, You want em' raw or cooked?" She asked, muggle pen scribbling across a paper notebook.
"Cooked, thank you," he replied. The waiter bustled off, and he turned back towards the bouncer, who was still staring at him.
"So, how recently did you explode?" She asked. He stared at her confused, before grasping what she meant.
"...A-ah, well, um, just about an hour ago, actually." He said. Perhaps this wasn't the best person to talk to about his situation.
Her mouth formed a small 'oh', and her eyes sparkled. She chuckled and held out her hand.
"Oh, almost forgot, Me name's Marigold, Welcome to the 'Shadow. We don't get many newbies around here anymore." She offered a hand, and he shook it, his bones clattering slightly.
"You think you can tell me what's going on?" He asked. he'd woken up and rather violently turned into a skeleton, he wanted answers.
"Sure... well, it'll cost ya, though." She grinned at him, flashing two rows of spiky, shark-like teeth. He sighed, of course, there was a price.
"Fine, what do you want?" He asked grouchily.
"That's the spirit! Don't worry, it's nothing much, just a few weeks of work, here, at the 'Shadow." She flashed her shark-teeth at him, violet eyes shining. He sighed but supposed it wasn't too much to ask.
"Alright." Damn, yesterday he was an Auror, and then here he was going to work in a bar filled with creatures, as well as many illegal activities.
A platter of fish arrived at the table, which Marigold greedily dragged towards herself, and began digging into.
She paused a moment, looking back up.
"Well, the first thing you ought to know about 'Skeles, is that you don't need sustenance, but you'll feel damn well better if you do consume something every little once in a while. You're lucky, as well, you can eat just about anything out there." She chomped into a fish's head, eating the bones as well as the flesh.
He nodded, watching curiously as she slurped down what seemed to be noodles made from octopuses.
"Now, your folk form when a mage, your prior self, is surrounded by death magic for too long, usually, Mages can withstand up to twenty years of exposure." She paused, staring up meaningfully at him from her hunched position above her plate, "Which makes your species a rarity." She finished, wiping her mouth.
The waiter came over and plopped a platter filled with ribs down in front of him. He looked down at the meat and felt a curious clenching of a non-existent stomach.
"You'll want to be eating the bones of that, a good source of Calcium," Marigold suggested, slurping down a long Octopus noodle.
He plucked a rib from the plate and placed it inside his mouth. Oddly, it didn't fall out, even though he had no skin to keep it in. He swallowed, and the rib travelled down a non-existent throat. A slight grating noise emanated from his chest, almost as if his magic had consumed the entirety of the rib, which Harry supposed it had.
It was an odd sensation, but he continued eating nonetheless. Marigold smiled at him, which Harry found slightly disconcerting, even though she had been massively helpful so far.
We finished the food over a few more conversations before she led him to a room. Though The Creeping Shadow was a self-proclaimed 'bar', it was more of an Inn.
He retired there for the night, and though he couldn't sleep, he could slip into a meditative state, like with Occlumency. His situation wasn't too bad, he supposed, he just hoped it wouldn't become worse.
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