Purgatory was unusually busy today. The in-between point of life and death was a pearly-white, hazy King's Cross. It had looked like a dreary stretch of barren wasteland a long time ago, but that was before there was a new Master of Death. This Master of Death was none other than Harry Potter, who was currently very bored.
Harry surveyed the aimless sea of souls from his throne. Ever since he'd died in his previous, fifty-first life, he'd been looking for this one person for years now, but so far to no avail. To be more specific, Harry was waiting for his soulmate to die so that they could be reborn again together. He figured that his soulmate was probably still alive just to annoy Harry. Deciding that there was nothing better to do, he picked up the latest newspaper of the underworld and began reading.
According to the article, the modern equivalent of Ghenghis Khan had killed an entire continent's worth of people in a flash massacre. Incidentally, there had also been a devastating detonation of a nuclear bomb on the other side of the globe too. That would definitely explain why Purgatory was so clogged at the moment.
Upon reading about these catastrophes, Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Every time he got reborn in one of the more futuristic time periods, there would be some sort of disaster that essentially wiped out everyone. For that reason, he made sure to always be reborn into a life in the twenty-first century or earlier. He vividly recalled the time in the twenty-second century when his soulmate and he had been incinerated by an accidental mass explosion that eventually sent the whole Earth up in flames. Harry hadn't known that oceans could burn too, and felt a twinge of pity for the flambéed sharks.
Lounging in his comfortable chair as he idly continued to flick through the newspaper, Master of Death Harry wondered when his soulmate would die and rejoin him. Last time they'd been reborn, Harry had died before his soulmate, and it happened again in this life. Yawning, Harry stretched his shoulders and was about to return to the newspaper when a certain familiar, handsome individual among the crowd of souls caught his attention. His soulmate was back.
"Darling!" He bounded over, pulling Tom into a tight hug. The souls around them looked scandalized before hastily glancing away when they recognized Harry. "You're looking as gorgeous as always."
"That's no surprise, since our souls always take on the eternal appearance of our twenty-year-self." Tom said, unimpressed.
"Doesn't matter. You're still a work of art. Why didn't you come back earlier?" Harry demanded.
Tom scowled at Harry. "It's not very nice to wish for your 'darling' to die, you know."
"Oh, please. This time you got to outlive me by ten whole years." Harry complained. "I have a right to be unhappy."
"Ten years is nothing to us. And, out of the four times we haven't died together, you've outlived me for half of those. It's only fair for me to live longer this time." Tom pointed out, extricating himself from Harry's clutches.
"Well, I suppose we can't keep dying via lover's suicide each time." Harry conceded. "But it's sotiringto watch hordes of souls milling about with no one to talk to. They all avoid me!"
"It might have to do with your title as 'Master of Death'." Tom suggested dryly.
"Come on, I'm not that scary." Harry crossed his arms.
"No, you're not." Agreed Tom. "Death, on the other hand, maybe."
"He's not scary. He's just misunderstood." Harry frowned.
Tom arched a single, delicate eyebrow. "Misunderstood? Death was cackling madly when the 21st century's version of the Black Plague broke out in one of our lives."
Harry waved him away. "That's natural for him. He is Death, after all. Anyways, we both know that he's quite the sweetheart when he feels like it."
"Occasionally," Tom admitted grudgingly. "Once you get over his spectral form, Dementor's robes, and terrifying twenty-foot-tall scythe."
"Hey! Don't compare him to a Dementor. Besides, the whole getup is for the theatrics. You two are the most dramatic people I know." Harry shot Tom a cheeky grin.
"I'm not dramatic." Denied Tom.
Harry snorted. "Please, darling. It may have been forever ago, but remember our first life? You would wax poetic with your monologues every time you had a chance to kill me. Honestly, I was only the Boy-Who-Lived because you were the Too-Dramatic-Dark-Lord."
Tom winced. "Let's not talk about life number one."
"That was one of my favorite lives with you!" Harry exclaimed. "You were so ugly for a good majority of it. I would have been considered the cuter one in this couple! But for a short moment when I met your diary Horcrux self, you were better looking between the two of us."
"We weren't even a couple during that life." Tom said flatly.
Harry roared with laughter at the prospect. "Oh my gods, that would have beenhilarious. Imagine the Chosen One and big, bad, Lord Voldemort together. Never mind the half century's worth of an age gap! Merlin, I would have killed to see the reactions. Rita Skeeter would have a field day, Ron would turn green, Hermione would have a coronary, Dumbledore would go into cardiac arrest, and Bellatrix would probably crucio the lights out of me." Harry wheezed, wiping away the tears of laughter.
"We can't have that happening. Only I get to crucio you." Tom said sardonically.
"You do make me lose my mind, but in a different way." Harry said suggestively.
Tom glared at him. "How mature."
"Drop the snobbish, poncy act. You're not a Malfoy anymore." Harry scolded.
"That was our twentieth life. Or was it the twenty-first?" Tom mused.
"Definitely twentieth. After that party you threw as the Malfoy heir, there's no way that I would forget which life that was." Harry sniggered, recalling the infamous life #20.
"…I made some mistakes."
"I didn't realize that 'mistakes' only involved drunken heists, chandelier levitation, tittering animagi, lots of kissing, buying a private island, and an irate Malfoy patriarch." Harry remarked.
Tom groaned into his hands.
"Don't forget the flammable blimp and the unicorn-screwt hybrid that Carrow invited. Definitely a bigger bash than your cousin's wedding. I don't think the Malfoy ballroom ever recovered from that night. I would have asked Draco about the Party of 1882 if we'd been reborn in his time again. Actually, that private Malfoy island he'd always been bragging about… could it have been the same one you bought?"
"Harry--"
"To your credit, you gave me the snog of my life. Mmmm, I can almost taste the champagne on your lips again." Harry smiled contemplatively. "Though that was a rather crude way for you to come out."
"The looks of shock and wolf-whistling made it worth it." Tom said sarcastically.
"It was definitely worth it. You never cease to surprise, darling." Harry batted his eyelashes.
"Are we not going to talk about your exploits? Don't think I didn't know about your little daydreams in our seventh life."
"So you were using Legilimency back then! That was a dirty trick, Tom." Harry said indignantly.
"That and our status as eternal soulmates." Tom deadpanned.
"Just a minor factor in it all." Harry agreed cheerfully. "And speaking of which…" Hadrian tugged at Tom's hand, phasing into his private quarters with a teleportation-like sensation.
"I told you to stop phasing without giving me a heads-up." Tom said sternly.
"Well, pardon me for being too eager." Harry harrumphed. "Do you know how much I've missed you?"
"More than I missed you?" Tom flashed Harry one of his suave smiles.
"Obviously, or you would have rejoined me." Harry pouted.
"Maybe I wanted to wait longer sothiswould feel sweeter." Tom smirked, taking Harry's chin in his hand and leaning in for a kiss.
Harry's eyes fluttered in surprise before he reciprocated, pressing against Tom's mouth. Reaching up to embrace the taller man, Harry brushed over the nape of his neck. Tom shuddered in response, abruptly taking Harry by the collar, their chests touching. Certain that Tom could feel his heart beating rapidly, Harry let out a little gasp when Tom pressed his long fingers against the small of Harry's back.
Taking advantage of Harry's parted lips, Tom bit down on Harry's soft, plush skin, running his tongue over Harry's delightfully luscious mouth. He then proceeded to plunge his tongue into Harry's warm cavern, eagerly exploring every last inch. Harry was unable to suppress the low moan that escaped his throat, and he could practically sense Tom's smug smile at the sound. In retaliation, Harry snaked his hands up Tom's shirt, feeling the toned torso. Tom growled appreciatively, deepening the kiss with a ferocious passion. Harry almost whined when Tom pulled away after a long while of more kissing.
"There. Been waiting to do that for a decade." Tom announced, looking triumphantly at Harry's lust-induced haze and half-lidded emerald eyes.
"You're always so amazing at this." Harry managed, still panting slightly. Tom's smirk widened as he continued to thread his hands through Harry's thick locks, reveling in his disheveled state.
"Your upper buttons are undone." Tom observed. Harry glared at him and quickly righted his appearance with a flick of his hand.
"That was your doing, you prat."
"Can't say you didn't enjoy it though." Drawled Tom, pressing his lips against Harry's for a brief, gentle kiss.
"You treat me so well." Harry agreed. "Honestly, you're too handsome for your own good."
"And you're enticingly beautiful." Tom murmured, leaning in to kiss Harry again.
Harry laughed and dodged his advances, pulling them both onto the bed. "Lie down." He commanded. "We haven't cuddled in ages."
"Would you like to do more than cuddle?" Came Tom's silken baritone as he wrapped his arms around Harry from the back.
"Nuh-uh. You're not getting back into my pants until I decide you're forgiven for spending ten years without me." Harry freed himself from Tom's embrace and turned to face him, sticking his tongue out.
"That's nothing in comparison to the amount of years we've lived together." Tom frowned.
"Too bad. You'll have to wait until I've forgiven you." Harry grinned impishly.
"So, a day maybe?" Tom summed up.
"You wish." Harry sniffed.
Tom gave one of his genuinely mirthful laughs and pulled Harry closer. Harry gazed back into his dark hazel eyes with his own vivid green, reaching out to caress Tom's soft, flawlessly fair cheek. Tom responded by nuzzling into Harry's neck, sighing with contentment. "I missed you too, beloved." He whispered by Harry's ear.
When Harry awoke, Tom was still asleep. They were still embracing each other, limbs tangled, hair mussed, and covers strewn messily. He smiled gently, tracing the angles of Tom's perfect features as he savored this moment of blissful peace. Tom stirred in his sleep, drawing Harry to his chest and winding his hands deeper in Harry's clothes.
"Possessive bastard." Harry commented fondly.
Tom lips quirked, evidently awake by now. "I'm your possessive bastard." He murmured, stroking Harry's back.
"That you are. Now that we're both awake, how about we get up?" Harry suggested, making to rise from the bed. Tom refused to let go, however, and Harry found himself back on the bed with a grunt.
"No. Stay." Tom ordered.
"You know, for someone who's so attached, you did take your sweet time in coming back." Harry nudged him.
"This again?" Tom gave him an apologetic look. "Harry, I missed you with every fiber of my being during that time."
Harry grinned. "I know you did. To be completely honest, it doesn't bother me much since ten years are very little to our thousands of years together. It just felt nice to make you squirm a little via guilt trip."
"Who said I was squirming?" Tom protested.
"I did." Harry poked Tom in the side.
They sank into a comfortable silence, each enjoying the other's company. Hadrian's brow had been furrowed in thought for some while before he opened his mouth hesitantly.
"Tom… I was thinking about something." He said slowly.
"Is this the breakup talk?" Tom said wryly.
"Of course not, you twat." Harry poked him again. "I was just thinking back to our previous lives. We've had it good, right?"
Tom snorted. "We've had it better than good."
"Exactly. But, I'm beginning to get a bit bored with the constant rebirth, becoming new people, living foreign lives, dying, and restarting. I was wondering… I was wondering if it was possible to be reborn into a previous life." Harry finished in a rush.
"Oh?" Tom intoned, interested.
"Remember when I jokingly pictured the Chosen One and Lord Voldemort together during our conversation when you got back?" Harry began.
Tom looked confused for a moment before his eyes widened in growing comprehension and horror. "No. Never. Definitely not. I know what you're going to say, and I won't like it."
"But Tom! Being reborn into our first life would be amazing." Harry insisted.
"Harry, looking back, I hate the person Lord Voldemort became. He was lonely, broken, desperate… he had no one." Tom said quietly. "In fact, if it wasn't for you discovering that we were soulmates, I wouldneverhave been reborn, my soul shards forever stuck in limbo. If you hadn't convinced Death to restore my soul, I would have been lost forever."
"Oh, Tom." Harry felt his heart stir. "I know that you won't be able to return to the loneliness of Lord Voldemort. However, I also know that you would thrive as Tom Marvolo Riddle and partially as Lord Voldemort. You're brilliant, charismatic, attractive, ambitious, and determined. Those are all attributes that Tom Marvolo Riddle and to some extent, Voldemort, had. I'm not asking you to ruin your life in this rebirth. I want you to re-enter our first life with a second chance. You can achieve all your aims as both a terrifying Dark Lord, and as the cunning Tom Riddle."
"I understand what you said about me being Tom Riddle and partially Lord Voldemort, but I don't know what you mean by achieving my aims as both." Tom frowned.
"My point is that Voldemort and Tom are not mutually exclusive beings. There's overlap, and you can be both. For instance, you could rise as Lord Voldemort again, but this time without Horcruxes. Then, you could create an alternate persona as some politician and let your Tom Riddle speak. This way, you could influence the Ministry from inside and out." Harry suggested.
Tom looked thoughtful. "That sounds like it would work. Yes, I could hint towards immortality and Horcruxes to throw off Dumbledore, cast glamors to further convince them… yes. Then once I meet my downfall at your infant hands, I could fake it and instead form my politician identity."
"Tom, I was most concerned about you having to re-live your childhood." Harry said haltingly.
A dark shadow crossed Tom's expression before clearing. "I won't like it, that's for sure. But I'll be willing to endure the orphanage and Dumbledore, and behave like I did in my first life. Unlike the first time, I'll have the thought of you to sustain me." He said softly.
Harry felt his heart clench and he pulled Tom in for a fierce kiss. "I love you, you know that right?" He said.
"And I love you too." Tom replied with his usual air.
"All right, we need to get moving. You know how cranky Death gets when we spend too long in purgatory when we could have been reborn." Harry said suddenly after a pause.
"What do we need to do now, then?" Tom asked, puzzled.
"Call Death and plan what we'll do when reborn." Harry answered instantly. "Death!" He shouted into his mind link with the immortal being.
Death popped by their side. He was in his 'humanized' form, his skeletal figure robed in tattered scraps of black fabric, scythe sheathed and roughly at their height. "Why have you called me now?" He asked exasperatedly. "It better not be about something like your third life again."
Harry went rigid at the mention of the third life, coloring with embarrassment. Tom looked at Harry curiously, not know what he was referring to, and Harry mouthed a "later" at him. "No, it's nothing like that. We wanted to ask you if it's possible to be reborn in a previous life."
Death eyed them with interest. "It's possible, yes." He said slowly. "What are you two up to this time?"
"Are you telling me that we could have gone back to any of our lives this whole time?" Harry demanded.
"Why, yes. Did you not know?" Death posited, bemused.
"Wha-- you know what, never mind. We want to return to our first life." Harry shook his head, not wanting to waste time by complaining.
"Really? You never fail to intrigue, master." Death smiled, or smiled as much as a skeleton could.
"Is there something wrong with our plan?" Harry said, worried.
"No, not at all; rather, the complete opposite. I think I'll be properly entertained for the first time in eons. You have my blessing." Death chortled.
"Just a question, Death." Tom interjected. "Because in our first life, I was born fifty four years before Harry, will I have to relive everything up until our first meeting still?"
Death looked at Tom sympathetically. "I'm afraid so."
Tom sighed, but didn't look surprised. "So Harry and I will be separated for fifty-some years."
"Correct, Tom." Death nodded.
"That sucks." Harry said petulantly. He had a sudden thought. "Death, would we be able to take on a form other than our biological age when we're reborn?" Harry ventured. He really didn't want to have to undergo puberty all over again. He'd done it for fifty-one lives and dreaded the thought of having to experience it once more.
"You are able to take on your 'eternal form' whenever you want." Death said as if it was obvious.
"What's an eternal form?" Harry echoed.
"It's the age your bodies remain at during the afterlife. In other words, you can change your reborn body to match your current, twenty-year-old selves at your whim." Death explained. "Did you not know this?"
Hadrian was appalled. "I could have avoided the cycles of puberty and you didn't see fit to tell us?"
"I thought I did tell you, though." Death shrugged. "But technically, you can't take on that form the entire time."
"I wasn't planning to." Harry said shortly. "Do we have any other cool abilities that you never informed us about?"
"You can shapeshift to different ages, and alter your features slightly from the original, but that's about it other than your immortality." Death said offhandedly.
Harry stared. "…We could shapeshift?"
"Only to different stages of your pre-existing body, of course. You can de-age and accelerate aging, more like. Don't forget the ability to mildly alter your traits." Death repeated.
"How did we never know this?" Harry exclaimed.
"There isn't exactly a manual on being the Master of Death." Tom pointed out dryly.
"But why didn't you let us know?" Harry threw his hands up in the air.
"I suppose I was busy when you first found out about your position as Master of Death, and it must have slipped my mind." Death answered airily.
"You had thousands of years to remember that you'd left out some crucial information." Pouted Harry.
"And you had thousands of years to ask." Death retorted.
"That's hardly fair." Harry glared at Death.
"I'm Death. I'm not fair." Death laughed. "Anyways, now you know. Can I leave?"
"Fine." Harry scowled.
By the end of what was considered a day in Purgatory, they'd created a basic outline of what they would do once reborn. Tom would not undergo the orphanage again. Instead, he would allow himself to be dropped off there, wait for an official documentation of his birth, and then promptly leave the hellhole. A week before the Hogwarts letters were to come, he would return to the orphanage, implant eleven years' worth of memories of Tom into the orphanage residents' minds. Tom knew that there were flaws to the plan, but he didn't really care.
The, during his Hogwarts years, Tom would continue to maneuver the Slytherin political field, form connections, and do all the "endearingly evil things", as Harry put it.
"Won't you be bothered by my not-quite-moral actions?" Tom asked when Harry brought this up.
"Oh please, Tom. I know that you're just that kind of person, and it doesn't bother me. Plus, I was a Dark Lord in our thirty-first life. And, this sounds awful, but after living for thousands of years, the actions you'll take as Lord Voldemort honestly don't bother me much. On the contrary, you know just how insane I am too. Who knows-- I think I'll join you on some of your raids. They're so exhilarating, and dealing with your Death Eaters' confusion at my existence will be so funny." Harry gave a mad giggle, already picturing the situation.
"And here I was thinking that you were temporarily sane." Tom remarked sardonically.
"I'm insane to the core." Harry snorted.
"Will I still have to kill your parents?" Tom said hesitatingly.
"We have to keep important events consistent in the timeline, so yes." Harry said after a pause. "Besides, Fate herself made it clear that we can't interfere with their deaths; she's already irked enough that we get a free pass from her plans."
"Oh," Tom said quietly. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about what I did to you and your family the first time." Tom said sincerely.
"You've made up for it several times over." Harry bumped his shoulder. "Anyways, their souls will be fine. The people who remain living in our reborn life, however… they might be at their wit's end once we're finished with them."
"Promise me that I'll get to see the Light's expressions when they discover that you're the complete opposite of their Golden Child." Tom said with mock seriousness.
"Unfortunately, I won't be revealing my true nature for quite a few years. Instead, I'll switch between acting like a young Tom Riddle around Dumbledore and a lovably crazy teenager with students." Harry announced with glee. "I think I'll put on such an excellent Tom Riddle act that Dumbledore will be scared shitless."
"How long are you going to do that around him?" Tom asked, amused.
"For as long as I feel like it." Harry said airily. "He'll regret leaving me to those muggles, and for thinking that any child deserves to be kept in an abusive household in the name of the Greater Good."
"I thought you said he put you there because of the blood wards." Tom recalled.
"Those blood wards were pretty weak against your forces. Merlin, even Dobby could have just popped into the house and teleported me back to the Malfoy home for you. And honestly, I think I've been more hurt by the Dursleys than any of your incompetent lackies." Harry snorted.
"Ah… that. I'll have to train my followers; they were fairly useless the first time we did this life." Ruminated Tom.
"To be fair,youweren't able to kill me either." Harry shot him a devious smirk.
"You must have been routinely bathed in Felix Felicis back then." Tom commented drolly.
"If I had been, we wouldn't have to be kept separate for fifty four more years." Harry crossed his arms irritably, referring to the gap between his and Tom's birthdates.
"We'll make up for it once we reunite, won't we?" Tom reminded Harry gently.
Harry buried himself into Tom's chest. "Definitely."
After staying like this for a few minutes, Tom stood up with a sigh. "I have to go now, Harry."
"At least give me a goodbye kiss then." Harry said with a somewhat sad smile. They both knew that fifty years were only a few minutes in comparison to their several lives together, but that didn't mean Harry wouldn't miss Tom anyways.
Tom cupped his hand over Harry's cheek and leaned down to give a gentle, loving, passionate kiss. When he pulled away, he placed one last kiss to Harry's forehead. Then, with a flick of his hand, he disappeared and Harry knew that somewhere in their first life, Tom Marvolo Riddle was born again.