AN: As Harry's height has never been specifically mentioned at least not as far as I know I am taking some liberties here even though it has been stated that he was about the same height as his father who was described as tall. I do this both for the impression I am trying to portray and because malnutrition doe stunt growth along with other factors.
"Death will be a great relief."-Katharine Hepburn
A man walked in the valley between life and death. It was a huge place with the ground covered with grass and flowers with some trees littered about. There were two huge walls of rock on either side of the wide valley. He had the face of an elderly mortal that had seen the horrors of war. Yet those atrocities had not blinded him to the bright side the better side of humanity for he was the one who walked on the edge of life and death and had witnessed the greatest that humanity had to offer just as he had the worst. His body seemed to be frail under the large clothes but underneath the disguise of frailty was a body forged through the flames of war and destruction.
His lone emerald green eye could see more than a man in his prime with both eyes could ever hope to see. His eye was able to see the Truth, for there is no greater truth than the souls of men and women. His shoulder length white hair flowed down in waves caressing his neck and falling gently onto his shoulders. Although he was short at the height of 5'6 his very presence radiated his power, at least those who were able to detect it for it was carefully concealed.
His body was clothed in a grey suit over which draped a huge, flowing silver robe. The robe was so large on his small frame that it seemed to make him look minuscule and weak. The wooden staff which he carried in his right hand only served further emphasise the impression of feebleness. His round wire rimmed glasses framed his face and highlighted the large scar that went down his left eye and ended just a few centimetres above his upper lip. He also happened to have a faint scar on his forehead that was barely visible in the shape of a lightning bolt.
If any had seen him they would not be able to believe that this man was apart of the 10 most powerful entities in existence. Although his scar looked to be fearsome most would ignore it as it just didn't fit with the rest of the kind and gentle old man they could see, indeed most ignored it thinking that he obtained it during war. However that was the undeniable truth, he was one of the few beings that even gods feared beings as he held the power to end all life on a whim if he so desired. Not that he would of course as that would mean entirely too much paperwork for him to deal with and he already had enough as it was, damn those humans and their petty wars. Such was the pain of being the universes primordial force of Death.
Just as he was about to turn around to go back to the office; he felt a tugging sensation centred on his gut. It reminded of the old days when he was just learning how to use his magic without a focus. Especially on the more difficult spells. After all magic could accomplish anything so long as you had the power, focus and strength of will to make it happen. Unfortunately very few had all three of these qualities.
The mortal mind could only handle so much before being damaged as almost everything has a limit. It was why so few of the wizards and witches from his home-world were able to use wandless magic. Every universe had magic flowing through it, for just like Death it was a universal concept. It was apart of the multiverse and that would not change in the foreseeable future. The only difference was whether or not the inhabitants of the universe were able to access the magic.
Death could not be manipulated without permission because it had a Master, Magic unfortunately or fortunately was not the same.
He had the potential to be the Master of Magic, but that would require that he actually work for it and dominate Magic as it had a certain level of sentience. Just as all multi-universal concept had. Another reason he refused to master Magic was because he did not feel like dealing with the paperwork that came with being the Master of a universal concept. Just because he was good at it didn't mean he liked doing it. After all if he had learned one thing from age, it was the fact that it felt wonderful to relax and be lazy at times.
Of course he wouldn't mind the benefits that would come with it but he had decided long ago that he would only become the Master of a universal concept if another was trying to take control of that concept. And that was only if he thought that the person who was attempting it would cause a lot of trouble.
After all Death knows that the Master of Life was an annoying prat but at least he did do his job. He could certainly do without the whole "life is precious and you can't end it just because you want to Harry-chan" curse the fool that got him addicted to anime.
Anime. It was the bane of his existence, now he liked it just as much as the next person but he could do without that idiot annoying him because of it. Life was so much easier back when he was an ignorant fool living his life and was unaware of anime being alternate universes. Honestly this was his reward for dealing with the prejudice of the European magical community. Did him becoming the Head of the DMLE and later the Minister of the British ministry of Magic mean nothing?
Of course it didn't, he was bloody Harry 'fucking' James 'bloody' Potter, nothing would go right for him because Murphy's Law despised or loved him depending on your perspective and Fate just loved pissing him off.
Damn that meddling little control freak. He knew she was ugly old hag behind that facade of an innocent and cute young girl. Living as long as he had he'd learnt to with as there was no point crying over spilt milk. Besides he had gotten over it eons ago. It turned out that Fate was one of the Angels the previous Master of Life created while bored and lonely.
She was the Death be damned creator of Murphy's Law which she blessed upon her most amusing playthings. She certainly regretted messing with him as he taught her that 'if your going to mess with someone's life don't make it easy for them to gain greater power than yourself'. Honestly if there was one thing he had learnt it was that with great power comes great loss of common sense. Thankfully he had learnt that early on before he became a Master due to the antics of wizards. Besides while he could deal with her, the meddling gave him some much appreciated vacation and it kept his life from getting dull and boring.
That tugging sensation had returned stronger than before. Getting slightly frustrated with it he zoomed into the connection and followed it back to its source. "Well what do we have here; Akasha is giving an unobstructed pathway into her multiverse. And do I sense traces of Fate's power. Oh this I can't ignore after al it's been a while since my last vacation." He said gleefully while rubbing his hands manically. "Well Akasha let's see where this leads you annoying old bat" shouted the old man to nothing before diving into a portal that opened up beneath him.
As soon as he passed through a portal there was an explosion of power and he felt a tendril of power slamming into his mind with all the grace and subtlety of a five year old with a truck. Remembering lessons from times long past he surrounded the tendril in his power and dominated it bending it to his will. "Ah I see I've been dragged to that world. Oh and what is this you're trying to place me in one of those annoying class systems, now that just won't do you unruly child. I'm quite capable of making my own class and I prefer to make the restrictions from my own power you see" he explained to the tendril from what he now knew to be the Grail. "Although I must say you remarkably corrupted so once this trip is over we'll see about making you one of my minions." The small shard of power shrieked in return but he was having none of that and quickly shut it up. "Now now you must respect your elders especially seeing as I can't be bothered with teaching you some respect."
He hastened to create his own class that would suit him. He looked through the classes and decided to model his own after the archer class. He did after all enjoy his independence. And he certainly had great eyesight despite his glasses and shut left eye. His main class ability would be heightened reactions. He would be able to see farther than anyone other than Archer and his weakness would be his awful luck similar to that of the lancer class. Other than that he would ensure that his power was restrained and that it would be restricted to a fraction of the power of his sealed form. It wouldn't do to be too powerful and curb stomp everyone after all he was a fair and reasonable man.
With that done he let himself be dragged through the second exit portal just before sealing the memory of what happened from the Grail. Just as he excited he felt another also be summoned and a burst of smoke hid the other from his view. He decided to allow it to disperse naturally instead of helping it along. As it left he felt out the powers of those around him.
His fellow servant felt ancient and had the distinct power of the serpent embedded deeply within them which made him thankful that he had regained his parseltongue ability. Their master contained some of the grail within her and was tainted because of it, but he could feel that she was somewhat pure and her power was quite high from one as young as her and she had a lot of magical potential.
The smoke had finally dispersed and he was finally able to look at his master. She was young, not even 16 yet, and had violet shoulder length hair and eyes. She wore a pink ribbon in her hair on the left side. She wore a white shirt over which she had a pink cardigan and her lower body was covered in a long cream coloured skirt. She was a short girl even shorter than him although she was quite developed in the chest department.
Turning his head to the side he looked at the kneeling women "I am servant Rider I ask of you are you my master?" She had long purple hair that cascaded down her back and a cover over her eyes. She wore a very small dress that only went down to a little less than mid thigh. Her legs were covered by long black socks with purple rings at the top and some purple armour on the tops of her shoes. Her arms were covered by black half sleeves adorned with purple rings.
"I-I" breathing in deeply "yes I am your m-master, it-it's nice to meet you my name is Sakura Matou" she answered bowing. Coughing to get their attention he announced "I am servant Seeker and it is a pleasure to meet you young one" turning to Rider "And you partner". Sakura just stood there staring at the old man wide eyed having never heard of the servant class Seeker and unable to believe that she had summoned two servants.
"I apologise if I am being forward but I have no knowledge of the servant class Seeker, are you able to explain that?" questioned Rider.
"As a matter of fact I can. You see from what I have gathered so far is that this is a irregular grail war as there are not usually eight servants, although there may be more. My class in itself is new and has never been used before. Indeed I should not have been summoned but as we can see from the young mistress' hand she has six command seals. Also while it is quite unusual for one so young to have the power to summon and maintain two servants I believe this is because the young mistress has more power than the average child her age. If you are worried about overtaxing her you need not worry so much, as I have a skill that allows me to maintain myself for a decent amount of time before needing more prana. So unless we engage in battle I will only need the young mistress to provide me prana for a few hours every 2-3 days. I believe the skill is similar to that of the Archer class's independent action." explained the old man.
"Okay I shall accept that for now, but I must ask why you call the master, mistress?" replied Rider.
"Well while I am aware of the fact that all masters are called master regardless of gender I would prefer to be grammatically correct. Unless of if young Sakura would like me to call her master" answered Seeker. "So young Sakura would you prefer me to call you master."
"Uh you can uh call me whatever you want" replied Sakura nervously while looking at the floor. Only to look up as felt a hand on her head, as the old man ruffled her hair. "There's no need to be so nervous kid" he said smiling "although for now I'd prefer it if we can keep the fact you summoned two servants quiet. So to help with that I shall stay in spirit form and if we need to communicate I shall use the connection between us to telepathically talk to you. Okay?"
"Okay. But do I have to hide it from everyone?" responded Sakura curious as the whether she would be able to tell her love interest.
"Unless they are already aware of magic and you believe you can trust them I don't see why not. Besides what I tell you is simply advice, whether or not you accept it is another thing and well I am simply your servant so if you really wish you could disregard my advice" he answered before dematerialising.
AN: If you spot any errors please inform me of it in a review. Thank you for reading.