Death slouched on the old rotten bench, with his feet resting on a turtle shell. He was in his favourite place; his garden. It had started out as a dream he wanted to do five years ago. Now it was a his reality. He enjoyed working in his garden, creating something beautiful instead of being the bogeyman who took people's soul's to the next life. Looking around he saw everything from the higher ground he was sitting on. The cherry orchard to his left, the gigantic hedge maze that he knew like the back of his hand, the roses right below him, his precious Orchids he had spent months nursing in his home before finally letting them out into the bitter and harsh weather outside and all his other creations. With a smug smile he thought to himself "This land would be empty, barren and ugly without me turning it into something beautiful." before added glumly, " Too bad I can't change the rest of the world".

Death had started coming here a lot more over the past few decades. Death had had been around for thousands of years and he felt he knew everything. He was use to Muggles coming up with new inventions and ideas, and even rediscovering old ideas. That was the world he was a part of. "But lately, I feel change is happening too quickly" he thought to himself. "With these skyscrapers and internet and all this modern muck, where is the natural beauty? Where are the muggle's going with these ideas?" Death shook his head. He was beginning to feel old and not in the good I am the ancient and wise way, but in the I'm getting tired and wish to leave this confusing world way. He had thought about it a lot lately; retiring. He already had servants who did most of the "soul transporting to the next life" for him. It would be easy to hand over the reins completely to his servants. Death shook his head as if to physically get rid of the thought in his head. James, one of his servants chose this moment to appear.

"Fancy a game of Ping Pong, My Lord?" James said, pretending he hadn't seen Death doing something out of the ordinary.

Death smiled appreciatively. "Not tonight, James, I think I'll stay in the garden a bit longer".

James was a bit worried his master needed to get out of the garden more but never knew how to phrase it without getting his head bitten off. "Master…." he began

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHhhh" screamed a voice causing James to flinch and then put two fingers in his ears. Death just ignored it; being the awesome dead guy he was. The sound felt like half a dozen Banshees had formed a rock group and they were standing in a circle around Death and James.

"Well, sounds like someone has just had an unjustified death" James commented. Water leaking from his eyes. It took James a few seconds to notice Death had gone.

/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

A Few Hours Earlier

"We must flee the country..." Narcissa began.

"I did not invest all those galleon in the Ministry, to waste by fleeing the country" Lucius Malfoy said firmly; trying to stop this conversation before it started.

"The old Ministry you bribed into doing your bidding is gone. Those Goody Two-Shoes supporters of Harry Potter will make sure of it. You won't be able to click your fingers and get the Minister to jump anymore" Countered his wife.

"They can try to change the system, but these people are naive and idealistic. They will try and they will fail." Lucius retorted.

Draco Malfoy stayed out of his parents' argument. He was just standing there, they were back in the Malfoy Manor, having just fled the battle of Hogwarts. But he didn't care about that, he had realized something far more important. Something he hadn't dared admit to himself since he was eleven years old.

He thought back to earlier that day in the Room of Requirements. Back to the Fiendfyre that Crabbe, the stupid idiot, had created but couldn't control. Back to when he was thinking he was going to die holding the stunned Goyle in his arms and standing on a desk watching the fire encroaching on them. His whole life flashing before his eyes and he realized how meaningless and appalling his life was. What was the point of being a Pureblood if he had no true friends, just two goons who hero worshipped him for six years and then abandoned him when the Malfoy family was in disgrace. Crabbe's words still rung in his ears "Who cares what you think? I don't take your orders no more, Draco. You an' your dad are finished".

"I have no friends" he thought. "Just people who only like me because of my blood status and wealth. I have a father who cares more about how the family is perceived by others than how his only son felt; his father hadn't said he loved him in 12 years. Draco shuddered when he remembered this last year; his Father allowed a madman to stay in their house and make the Malfoys' lives a misery. His mother was the only one who said that she loved him, he just wished she said it more often. But what he was really thinking, the elephant in the room he was trying not to think of was something that he dared not even think for 7 years. Ever since he was an arrogant boy who thought he was better than everyone else and made a terrible mistake in Dagon Alley. If he was going to die then he would tell the world his biggest secret. He took a deep breath, which almost immediately he realized was a mistake as he inhaled smoke. COughing he said. "I Dra..(COUGH)...co Lucius M…(COUGH)... Malfoy Love (COUGH) Harry James Potter". He finished in a wheezy voice.

The Fiendfyre was creeping up on them, he tightened his grip around the stunned Goyle and edged back half a step. He didn't realize he was screaming until he heard it in his eardrums.

That was when Harry Freakin" Potter came out of the flame,s flying on a broomstick, and tried to reach for Draco from above. Draco snatched his hand desperately. But it was like Harry had purposely covered his hand in butter to piss Draco off.

"IF WE DIE FOR THEM, I'LL KILL YOU, HARRY" Roared Ron as he and Hermione charged at him on a broom another broom

Draco would have cried with joy if he wasn't so roasted and dehydrated. "Thank You" he whispered. Then he saw the Chimaera that had appeared in the flames. Time slowed. The Chimaera was rapidly moving toward this speeding broom, it got closer…. And closer. Ron and Hermione were right above him. The Chimaera half a foot behind. Hermione dragged Goyle onto the broom. Giving the Chimaera a second to advance which of course it did. Ron commanded the broom to rise just as Draco jumped onto the back of Harry's. The Chimaera went to bite the broom but rolled and pitched and they were all flying away.

Draco hugged Harry tightly. If Draco could change time he would have said something nice to Harry then, but instead he was thinking of staying alive, he screamed "The door, get to the door, the door."

Of course Harry didn't listen to him "What are you doing, what are you doing? The door's that way!" screamed Malfoy just before grabbing Harry tighter as Harry made a hairpin swerve and dived to catch something which he later learn't was the stupid Diadem. Maybe Draco was trying to distract himself from his impending death by this stupidly brave Gryffindor but he realized that Harry's body was surprisingly cold. "I suppose that's because I've been cooked alive" Draco thought. He could smell Harry, it was giving Draco unnatural thoughts.

Malfoy closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were outside the Room of Requirements and he was coughing and retching.

"C - Crabbe" he choked, already knowing the answer. "C - Crabbe".

"He's Dead" Ron said and guilt filled Draco, it was his idea to stay in the castle instead of immediately joining Voldemort. Now Crabbe was dead.

Back in the present Draco's eyes darted to his father who was still in a heated debate with his mother. He knew what he had to do. What he was too scared to do back at the Battle of Hogwarts. HIs parents would be disappointed but "screw them" he thought. Tonight he had learned something about himself. He didn't like who he was. He wanted to change. He wanted to be a good person, a person who Harry Potter might like, and maybe even love?

The doors to the Entrance Hall had been pulled off their hinges, "probably done by a giant" Draco thought in the back of his mind. Dozens of statues littered the floor. A few were crumbled to dust, others were missing body parts. Draco tried not to look at the other bodies that were littering the room in pools of blood. Partly because of the huge guilt he felt, partly because of the anger he might see in the people alive crowding around their loved ones. However one body caught Draco's eye; Matthew Jones. The poor kid must have been 13 years old. He walked over to the Kid. The kid wasn't suppose to be at Hogwarts, Matt he had spent the last year on the run from the Ministry. Why had he come back to Hogwarts. Draco remembered how he had made the boy's life at Hogwarts a misery. He didn't think it was possible for him to feel anymore ashamed of who he was, but he did now. He knelt down over the body of this boy who loathed him and shouted for everyone in the Entrance Hall to hear.

"I Draco Lucius Malfoy, swear that I will never call another human being "Mudblood", I swear to never discriminate against anyone and devote my life to ending this prejudice of Muggleborns and Half-Bloods in the Wizarding World."

Then he leaned over Matt and closed his eyelids.

Matthew's eyelids sprung open. Draco gasped in shock. That was the last expression his face made when Matthew grabbed his wand and shouted "Sectumsempra" aiming his wand at Draco's neck, cutting it instantly. "AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHhhh" screamed Draco's spirit looking down at his own body.

"SHUT UP" screamed a person behind him. Draco looked around. Behind him was a corpse, atleast he was pretty sure it was a corpse. Before him was a blond haired blue eyed man dressed in a hooded robe, what made him think the man was dead was the fact that his skin was as pale as a ghost, the kind of pale that you perfect from sleeping in a rotten coffin for ten years, next was the stench, he stank of a body that had stopped working. What made Draco wonder if he was alive was the fact the corpse was standing up and giving Draco a dead eye stare.

"Hi, my name's Benjy."

Draco watched the corpse's lips move. His heart dropped. All around him people were running to Draco's body.

"Don't bother, they can't hear or see you or even sense you for that matter"

Draco looked crestfallen but he still tried shouting in McGonagall's ear and sticking a finger in her eye. Then repeating the process with a few students.

Benjy looked bored.

Malfoy walked back over to Benjy. "So are you Death?"

Benjy opened his mouth to reply. But before he could say anything someone else intoned "N-oo, that would be Me"

Malfoy turned around to see this new… whatever it was.

Standing before him was a seven foot tall person wearing a similar robe to Benjy, though this new guy's looked a bit nicer, riding a giant flaming skeleton horse. From somewhere under this person's hood, someone said "I'll take this from here, Benjy"

Benjy looked up at this imposing figure and pouted "Come on, did you wait until the most dramatic moment to appear? Why have you set Frederick on fire?"

The new guy pulled down his hood, Malfoy held back a gasp when he saw skeleton hands reveal a Skull underneath the hood. "YOU DARE QUESTION ME?" he intoned again.

Benjy looked like he needed to have a very large poo. "No, boss, I would never…"

"BEGONE"

With that Benjy disappeared.

The Skeleton dismounted his horse and walked up to Draco. Draco felt himself shake.

"Who are you?" challenged Draco, trying to be brave.

"DEATH"

"No, you're.." Began Draco before thinking this guy does look like what he imagined death to look like. "Who was that?"

"MY ASSISTANT, HE ALSO DELIVERS SOULS TO THE NEXT LIFE IN MY NAME"

Draco nodded. "Why isn't he taking me to the next world"

"I HAVE TAKEN A PERSONAL INTEREST IN YOU"

"That sounds ominous" Draco thought to himself. "Why?"

Death thought for a moment before saying in a normal voice. "Curiousity, why are you in so much pain?"

"Um, I've just had my head chopped off. It hurts"

Death stared at him, he felt Death's empty eye sockets stare intently at him. "I meant emotional pain. You are troubled by something."

So Draco told him about how he had had an epiphany and how he was going to undo all the bad things he did in life by doing nothing but good in life and how he wanted to tell the guy he loved how much he meant to him. Death conjures a bench for them to sit on.

"Unfinished business… hmmm…." Death was disappointed, he hoped for more.

"I just wish I could go back in time and befriend Harry Potter in Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occassions… that and be less of an arrogant prick".

Death smiled at the mention of his old nemesis' descendant. He had an idea.

"Why'd I have to die?"

Death tried to divert the conversation back to where it was. "What if you did travel back in time?"

"But that would be impossible, I could have turned a Time Turner a hundred thousand times in my life but I'm dead now,... although you could bring me back to life?" Draco added hopefully.

If Death could roll his eyes, he would of done now.

"Or I could just send you back in time myself"

"You can do that?"

"No, I'm just messing with you"

Draco gave him his best scowl.

"I was being sarcastic. I can bend your rules of reality like they're made of rubber."

"You were being sarcastic?"

"Yes"

"... Please do it?"

Death touched Draco's head. Almost immediately Draco felt like every cell in his body was waking up and telling him they were there. It tickled. Then he felt some sort of force was pulling him backwards. Like a giant magnet. He was slowly being pulled backwards.

"Wait, why are you helping me?... Why would….."

The force enlarged and Death was soon shrinking as Draco travelled through some sort of mist. The skeleton grin was the last thing he saw of Death.