Being a master of Death was the most unfortunate thing that could possibly happen to an individual. At least, that's what Harry Potter believed in earnest. He still recalled the cursed day when he held the third of the Hallows, the Resurrection Stone, thereby sealing his fate as the one and only person with control over Death itself. Yes, the perks were attractive, Harry agreed but the price that came with it was terrible i.e. Immortality.
There was a day when Harry would have scoffed at the mere thought that a person could label Immortality as terrible but that day was when he was but a child of eleven still recovering from his battle against Lord Voldemort who had taken over the soul of the poor DADA professor Quirrel. He had asked the esteemed wizard about the fate of the philosopher's stone to which Albus Dumbledore had replied that the stone was to be destroyed by the consent of its creator Nicholas Flamel. Life was getting too tiring for them, Dumbledore had said and Harry had been alarmed about their imminent death. Death is but the next great adventure, now that he mused upon his headmaster's words of the past, he couldn't help but agree only his thoughts were slightly different in that regard. Death was not only the next great adventure but the absolutely required adventure, he had learned at a great cost.
He couldn't quite recall when he had started to notice the signs. In fact, he hadn't noticed it at all. It was Ginny, his beloved Ginny who had once commented that he looked as if he didn't age one bit past twenty five. And the world had come crashing down upon him. Time went on and his appearance remained the same and he began getting uncomfortable about it. His beloved wife did her best to comfort him, to assure him that his appearance meant nothing to her at all. In fact, she even once joked that possessing a forever young husband only meant that she was extremely lucky. In retrospect, he really did have the most amazing witch as his wife and if he could, he would go back in time, he would argue with his wife that it was him who had hit the jackpot.
As time went by, his suspicions became more and more evident and finally, it was when a barrage of Killing Curses hit him at once that he became sure that he indeed was immortal. He distinctly remembered that day still. After Ginny had passed away from an unfortunate potions accident at the unfair age of 40, he had gone in an answer to a distress call from Azkaban asking for backup against a group of Dark Wizards trying to break into the wizard prison. He was still unsettled from his loss and was not too careful (and subconsciously looking to die) the result of which was that he was taken unawares by the said group of infiltrators by merciless jets of green death curses. He had lost his conscious and found himself in an ocean of whiteness. It was then that Death had finally confronted him in all its glory to inform him that congratulations, he was now its master and while it would like nothing much than to impale his impudent self into oblivion but due to its own rule, it couldn't and it had also informed him that he was now an immortal and that he would finally know the horrors that came along with the arrogance of even thinking of one upping against Death itself.
That was the day that he'd learnt that not only was he doomed to roam the earth for eternity but also that Death was one snobbish arsehole. With this realization (not the Death being a snob part), he had finally managed to start accepting his fate. Granted that it was no easy thing but what else could he do?
His immortality was no short of a curse, but it would have been absolute hell if it was not for two people taking him in: Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel. As Harry found out later, the Death of the Flamels had only been a ruse orchestrated, with the help of Albus Dumbledore, by the Flamels themselves. They had feared that Voldemort would come after them for the Philosopher's stone after he had risen once again. And it was this very reason that they had effectively isolated themselves from the wizarding society for almost two centuries and had not known about Harry's peculiar situation. But once they heard about him, they had tracked and found him and invited him to live with the two. They had also offered to teach Harry of all the things that the two of them were versed in, Nicholas in Alchemy and Perenelle in Blood and Soul magic. In a very short amount of time, Harry had found in Flamels, his mentors, friends and a loving family.
Harry was now in a room with two other people by his side, Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel. The room itself was quite grand, almost like the great hall of Hogwarts itself. In the middle of the room was a small dining table and on the table was a delicious looking cake. There was a banner hanging on one side of the room on which was written in big bold letters, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY!
Indeed, it was the occasion of Harry Potter's birthday.
"Really Nic, you need not have done this," a slightly bored Harry said.
"Nonsense," the one who replied wasn't Nicholas but his beautiful looking wife Perenelle, "it is a happy occasion Harry! Now don't be a spoilsport and blow the candles"
The cake only had ten candles on it as was customary for the Flamels, Harry included, for none of them ever bothered to remember their true age.
Harry gave up arguing against his grandmother as always and blew the candles to which Nicholas only chuckled.
"Happy Birthday Harry!" both Nicholas and Perenelle exclaimed at once.
Harry looked fondly at both of the Flamels. He smiled when he saw Perenelle practically exuding happiness and even Nicholas who had a child like expression on his face. Harry knew all too well that the Flamels were a happy bunch. After all, if they didn't learn to be happy then they wouldn't have survived living for so many years bearing witness to each of their friends leaving them for their next great adventure.
"Time for presents!" Perenelle exclaimed.
She gave Harry a box nicely wrapped box which Harry unwrapped at once. Inside was a book entitled, "Arcane Magics of Blood and Soul"
"So you finally completed your grimoire, congratulations Nelle!"
"Completed just last night," Perenelle said smugly, "You probably know everything inside the book already though" Perenelle said.
"Thanks Nelle, it is quite concise from the look of it. You did a great job!" Harry thanked her earnestly. For him, perhaps the book was nothing but an organized tome of Blood and Soul magic but for anybody else of the wizarding population, the book was a treasure trove. In fact, if one were to weigh it against the entire Gringotts itself, the book would still come out more valuable!
"Now time for mine then," said Nicholas and offered a ring with a ruby on it.
"This.." Harry looked at it for a moment, "So you finally did it Nic? I was almost sure that you wouldn't be able to shrink the Stone any smaller!" Harry showed a genuinely surprised expression.
Nicholas looked quite smug at his praise and said, "Of course! It did take me a while but you would never guess what I used as the stabilizing metal."
"Amazing!" Harry said. Living with the Flamels for the better part of the thousand years, he had indeed picked up the art of Alchemy as well as Arcane magic from both Nicholas and Perenelle but unlike Nicholas, he was not a natural in Alchemy. Of course, he knew all that there was to know about Alchemy itself, so much so that he could produce a Philosopher's stone in a mere month but he was not a natural. Which didn't bother him in the slightest because Nicholas was quite the genius and was inventing things every ten year or so and whenever he did, Nicholas would always teach Harry the things that he had invented.
"Here," Nicholas gave him a bundle of papers, "there is the notes regarding the stabilizing agents."
"You boys and your obsession with shrinking the stone. Who cares what size it is !?" Perenelle said in a reprimanding tone.
"Now now Nelle," Harry said, "Don't steal Nic's thunder. He did quite a good job you know. And if it were not for the fact that there are only two Alchemists, me and him, around here it would have been a big thing!"
Harry said while skimming Nicholas notes. After he was done, he wore the ring on his right hand and then he swiftly vanished both the book and the note away presumably storing them in a safe place somewhere.
To Harry's praise, Nicholas showed a pleased smile while Perenelle merely showed a look that seemed to say, "whatever"
"Now boys, let's eat the dinner already!" Perenelle said and began to serve the dishes and it was at that precise moment that everything went to chaos.
Huge magic gathered inside the room much to the alarm of all three who were present inside. The mansion that the Flamels resided in began to shake violently. In fact, the whole of the Europe felt the magical disturbance that was going on at one remote part of France.
The room itself was brimming with magic and it appeared as if it was about to explode but that didn't come to be. Instead, the magic gathered at one point, just behind Harry and teared the fabric of reality. A black circular portal sprouted behind Harry and before he could even do anything at all, he was pulled inside of it. The last thing that he laid eyes on was the horrified expression of both Nicholas and Perenelle.
The first thing Harry registered was that he was no longer inside a well lit room. No, he was at a grassland instead. It was midnight and the only thing that was giving off any light at all was a circle of torches all around him. Harry observed his new surrounding carefully. If he was alarmed at all to this inexplicable event, he didn't let it show. He found that he was standing on top of a series of concentric circle each inscribed with exotic runes that he recognized as mix of Sanskrit and Celtic runes and inferred at once, he was summoned!
Harry looked back and saw that behind him was a person who was lying facedown on the ground. He moved quickly towards the person and ran his hands over his body. The man's magic was nearly depleted and his life pulse was weak. He did a basic healing on the person and made sure that his life was no longer under danger.
Shortly afterwards, Harry began to contemplate the exact set of events that brought him here. From the first look, it appeared as if the man on the ground performed an ancient summoning ritual which somehow summoned Harry from his room. But he dispelled that notion quickly. He knew enough about the Summoning ritual to know that the ritual would have forced him to disapparate from his room to the summoning site. But he had not apparated here, no, he had been pushed into the crack that had appeared in the fabric of reality itself which could only mean one thing, he had been summoned into another world!
"But he couldn't have done this!" Harry cried in disbelief, "It requires too much magic!"
But evidence clearly pointed that an inter world summoning had indeed occurred. Harry furiously began to think of things that would have made it possible.
And then it came to him, "Samhain!"
The day where magic was at its fullest, enriching the very air of the earth itself. The ritual caster had somehow managed to attract the entire excess magic of the world to fuel the ritual. After all, creating a tear in the fabric of reality was no small feat!
"But what were the conditions?" Harry said out aloud.
He very well knew that the summoning rituals like these had to have a condition about whom to summon. While it was unlikely that the summoner had used conditions like "The master of Death" or even "Harry Potter from alternate world" he didn't dispel that notion immed. Harry couldn't really know for the condition was a part of the chant of the ritual itself and not inscribed on the runes on the ground.
But one thing that he did know was that the Summoner was utterly foolish!
"He could have lost his life! Scary still, he could have killed people in a thousand mile radius!"
The ritual clearly required gathering of a great amount of magic at one place. If even one rune was out of place or poorly drawn, then the gathered magic would have exploded causing severe casualties! To say that the summoner was foolish was a great understatement. No, the man was the depth of foolishness. To even think of a ritual that could very well wipe out entire life in thousands of mile radius was a horrible horrible thing. But to perform it in reality! Harry didn't have the words to describe the amount of foolishness that was required.
"Aa.. W-was it.. success?" the voice of a person stirring caused Harry to cease his thoughts.
Looking back at him, he saw the person who was most probably the summoner, awaking from his sleep.
"You Fool!" Harry cried, "You Dunderhead, you genocidal maniac. What in god's green earth possessed you to perform this ritual!? Do you have any idea what you have done or what you could have done? Tell me you idiotic buffon, did you even know the risks involved?"
The man was still half awake when he replied, "I.. I had to."
"What could possibly be so important that you provoked one of the lost rituals of the old?" Harry said in a stern tone.
"No.. You don't.. You don't understand! I had to do it!"
The man was now fully awake and was trying to get up on his feet.
"You had to? Why? For the sake of power? Or wealth? Or perhaps knowledge? Tell me you fool, for what purpose did you endanger the fate of not only yours but of humanity itself?" Harry said mockingly.
"NO! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" The man bellowed, "I do not require money, power or knowledge!"
At his outburst, Harry felt a cold chill pass through his heart. He had the distinct impression that he somehow knew this man.
"It is you that I want!" the man cried.
"What the fuck do you mean!" Harry couldn't restrain his voice.
"It is you! The only person who can help me!" The man was now shaking with emotions. He still hadn't looked at the one that he had summoned or perhaps he had looked but was in no condition to distinguish one thing from the other.
Harry felt as if something was terribly out of place. Not wanting to waste anymore time, he upped his methods. He infused his voice full with his magic and said with a very heavy and serious tone,
"What is your name?"
The magic vibrated the air around him through his voice. Harry could see the effect that his magic infused voice had over the one in front of him. He was now cowering with fear,
"S..severus.." the man managed only one word before Harry lost his cool,
"SNAPE!?" magic flared all around Harry causing the winds to go berserk and the grass around him to dance as if they were utterly scared of him.
The man looked up at Harry at the mention of his surname. And indeed, it was Severus Snape. Due to the overwhelming magic around Harry that was reacting to his anger, Harry was exuding a very angry red which made Snape wince his eyes. But Harry could easily see the person before him. Even after all these years, Harry had no problem of recognizing the person in front of him was: Severus Snape, the youngest potioneer who made his life hell during his stay at Hogwarts. Severus Snape, who silently guarded him from the sidelines while handing him detentions left and right. Severus Snape, the most complicated man that Harry had ever known during his long long life.
Severus Snape looked towards the person that he had summoned with fearful eyes. He was utterly exhausted and was barely capable of even standing upright at the moment but he just had to make sure. He had spent great many months of his life to perform this ritual. This was his one and only chance to right his wrongs and redeem himself.
"What was your summoning condition," Harry said each word with a calm that seemed to stop the world itself.
"I.. ," Snape was having a hard time forming his words, "I called the one who could bring her back.."
"TO BRING HER BACK?" Harry was having a hard time controlling his anger.
"YOU FOOL! YOU.. YOU IDIOT!" He also was having a hard time coming up with words to label the amount of foolishness that this once calm person had shown.
Harry soon retained his calm but his anger was still not absolved.
"Who do you want to bring back Snape!?" Harry was seething.
"Lily," he uttered a single world and the world went haywire. Harry was having an absolutely hard time restraining his fury but with that one word, it all came crashing down upon the world.
"YOU REALLY WANTED TO BRING BACK A DEAD!?" Harry shouted with a voice full of magical wrath. Snape was now cowering beneath him unable to feel the weight of his magic.
With the patience Harry had gained from his long long life, he somehow managed to calm himself a little.
"Not dead," Snape said meekly, "She is not dead."
"She is not?" Harry asked curiously.
"No," Snape repeated.
Harry's anger evaporated instantly. In fact, he felt a little embarrassed on having lashed out at the one in front of him without hearing everything from him.
"Tell me then, what do you mean by wanting to bring her back?" asked Harry.
Before Snape could say anything, many people instantly appeared around the two of them accompanied by the distinct pop that indicated an apparation.
"Freeze! We are Aurors from the DMLE. Raise your hands this instant!" One of the man said.
With the magical disturbance that had happened at this place, due to the summoning ritual used by Snape, it was a small wonder that ministry had appeared here to investigate. Harry, however, did not have the patience to deal with them at this instant.
He raised his hands and he as well as Snape were covered in an opaque golden sphere.
"This will keep them out for some while," Harry said. He could feel the multitudes of stunners that the Aurors were firing at his dome in vain.
"We could continue this conversation here," Harry said to Snape, "But I would very much like not to."
He then waved his hands around and the ground where the runes for the summoning ritual was cast was wiped clean. He grasped Severus by his hands and both of them faded out of existence.
The two of them appeared in a clearing. The clearing was surrounded by thick trees and foliage.
"Where are we?" Snape asked.
"That does not matter," Harry said casually, "Now, I believe you have some explaining to do. Begin with what made you do such a desperate ritual. Actually, just tell me everything from the start."
Snape looked uncomfortably towards him.. And jumped.
"YOU!" He barked.
As it so happened, this was the first time that Snape had looked at the face of one who he had summoned. He hastily pulled out his wand but before he could fire a red stunner, he found himself unable to move and then his wand flew out of his hands towards the man who very much looked like James Potter.
"POTT-" Snape started to say but lost his voice midway due to a silencing charm cast at him.
"I am not James Potter," Harry said in an annoyed voice, "So do not waste my time spouting any other words but the ones I want to hear or I swear to you I will rob you of your tongue." Harry had said the words with magically infused voice.
Fusing magic in his voice to project different emotions did a wonderful job of affecting those who heard the voice. In this case, Harry had projected mortal threat and as intended, it had the wonderful effect of shutting Snape at once. In addition to that, his face was now deathly pale due to Harry's threats.
"Good," Harry waved his hands dispelling the silencing charm on Snape. "Now begin."
Snape remained silent for a little while but then collected himself and then started to speak.
Harry didn't know much about alternate realities except for the fact that they existed. It was Nicholas who had been quite enthusiastic about the subject. Nicholas had, not only read most magical literature about alternate dimensions but he had also read quite a lot of muggle Physics too. Despite of not having too much enthusiasm on the subject, Harry had gathered, from many rants that Nicholas liked to go on, and from Severus Snape's narrative that he was indeed in an alternate dimension. One not so much different than his own.
Here too, Snape was the same person. Lily Evans' childhood friend. The both of them had attended Hogwarts and had been separated in two different houses. And here too, Snape had, in one moment of humiliation and fury ended up breaking his friendship with Lily with that one word.
Lily had then passed out of Hogwarts and had married James Potter shortly and had given birth to, not Harry Potter (to Harry's surprise), one Rose Potter.
Meanwhile, Snape had joined the Death Eaters and had been the bearer of the same prophecy, as of his own world, to Voldemort. This prophecy too had dictated about the vanquisher of Voldemort being born on the end of July to those who had thrice defied him and as such had indicated Rose Potter and one Neville Longbottom. And from here, things had diverged.
Voldemort had not chosen Rose Potter (which Harry suspected was due to her being a girl) and had instead targeted Neville Longbottom, killing his grandmother Augusta Longbottom in the process. The strict but loving grandmother, too had ended up providing a shield of sacrifice that had bounced off the Killing Curse to Voldemort himself and had defeated him in the process. As such, Neville Longbottom was now heralded as the Boy Who Lived.
However, things had not ended there. Voldemort's followers including Bellatrix Lestrange and Barty Crouch Jr had somehow managed to infiltrate the Potter household in Godric's Hallow from which the Fidelius had been lifted after the defeat of the Dark Lord. James Potter had not been in the house due to his auror duties leaving his wife Lily Potter alone with their baby Rose. The Death Eaters had easily subdued her and then had tortured her to the point of insanity. James Potter and his friends had arrived at the house too late to find the Death Eaters still torturing her mercilessly. They had then subdued the Death Eaters but Lily was already driven to insanity and was still an occupant of a long term ward in the St. Mungos.
"I go to see her every day," Snape said between tears, "But she does not recognize me. She won't speak with me anymore, not even to fight. She just stares at me with those vacant eyes."
"I just had to do something to bring her back! They said, they said that no person in this earth could do anything to cure her. That she was too damaged. But I still did not give up any hope. And I was rewarded. Six months ago, I found an ancient book about the summoning ritual that was once used by the Indians to bring spirits of other worlds to this world."
"And then you used the ritual to summon me here.." Harry sighed.
"You.. You can heal her right?" Snape asked.
Harry looked at him for a moment. He could clearly see hope, desperation, obsession and a myriad of emotions on his face. Harry frankly thought that this was perhaps the first time that he had seen anything other than rage and sadness in Severus Snape's face.
"Suppose I can bring her back," Harry began, "Then what Severus? What will you do? Perhaps you've forgotten, but she is James Potter's wife and she loves him, not you. After she had been healed, she would want to be with her husband and her daughter, not with you, never with you. What do you gain if she is healed?"
"I do not care! I do not care if she is married to James Potter or not. I just want to see her, not with those vacant eyes on her face. I want to see her smiling again. You do not know how much it hurts when I see her face, once full with life and happiness, so lifeless on the hospital. You do not know how much I have wanted to just barge into Azkaban and rip the hearts out of those who did this to her. You do not know how much I abhor James Potter for failing to protect her, for leaving her in that house all alone. Please, I will do anything that you want. I will give you my life. I will even become your slave if you wish to but just bring her back! Please!"
Snape was now on his knees begging him. Seeing Snape like that, Harry was stunned. Never did in his life he imagine just how much had Snape loved Lily. The man was willing to give anything and everything for curing Lily Potter.
"What if I say that you have to get out of Lily Evans life forever?" Harry asked him. He knew that his was a very cruel thing that he asked of him but it was a necessary thing.
Snape did not even take a second to answer, "I will get out of her life forever."
Harry was surprised with the decisiveness in Snape's voice.
"And if I told you to forget her?"
"Then I will forget her!" said Snape, clearly annoyed.
Harry sighed once again. This level of obsession on Snape's part was not something that he had known about the man.
"Please, I told you, I will do anything! Anything to bring her back!" He pleaded once again.
"You do not understand Snape!" Harry barked, "It is very very costly to restore her!"
"So you can bring her back!" Snape cried in joy, "Then I beg of you, do so! Whatever be the cost I am willing to give. Even if it is my life that you required in exchange, I will happily give it up!"
"You don't understand Severus," Harry said softly.
"NO! IT'S YOU WHO DO NOT UNDERSTAND! LILY IS MY LIFE AND I WANT HER BACK!" Severus shouted, stunning Harry at his spot. Tears formed in Snape's eyes as he broke down in front of him, "It's you who do not understand!"
Severus said in a heartbroken voice, "For so long I have craved Lily's forgiveness and I have loathed her for not giving me that. I have despised James Potter for taking her away from me. I have hated this life where I have been denied the opportunity of being with her! But only after seeing her there, with those lifeless eyes have I understood. Lily's forgiveness does not matter, James Potter does not matter and even my life does not matter. The only thing that matters to me now is Lily herself. I wish her to wake up, I wish the smile, the life back on her face and for that, I am willing to do anything! ANYTHING AT ALL!"
Harry eyed him for a moment. This was not obsession, this was insanity. Severus Snape was an insane man and short of killing him, Harry could nothing to change his decision.
He sighed, "Very well. Let's go."
Snape instantly broke into the widest smile he had ever seen on the man. Harry felt conflicted at his smile but he didn't let it bother him. He grabbed Snape's hands and then disappeared out of there.