"You lied to me." Harry's croaking voice spoke to Fawkes as he flashed in. "You told me that if I came here I would find a loving family who would care about me. You pulled me from my world to be tortured by heartless people who wear the faces of my dead loved ones."
Harry lay on the dirty floor of his prison cell where the order had him in for the past six weeks that he had come into that world. Fawkes was standing beside him tears falling from his eyes as he saw what had been done to the boy who had already been through and lost so much more than anyone else ever had. He certainly could not blame him for thinking that way especially with the daily torture that he had been put through since he arrived, never given a chance to heal or rest. Sending Harry to an alternate world had taken a lot out of him and he had not been able to join him till now. He never thought that the light could be so evil or callous. There was nothing left of the child he knew just a broken shell tortured in such a way he would have expected to come from death eaters not those of the light side. Even if he had been a death eater this was more than he expected of them. Harry's croaky voice sounded so broken as he continued to speak,
"I couldn't give a fuck what happens to them now I am not going to save them. I want to go home. Even if that means my death at least then I will know what I am dying for."
By then James Potter had walked into the room just as Harry spoke his last words. With a sneer on his face he said "You are dying for your sins you death eater, Your little plot will not work on me. Just because you were once my son does not mean that you will be excused for joining the dark lord."
Harry opened his eyes wider as he turned to look at James Potter, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, "I hope you can forgive yourself for what you did to me despite the fact that I have never hurt anyone because I certainly won't."
Harry coughed up more blood as he felt his body shutting down. He was worse off than he had realised. He felt the cold invade his body from the inside as he died. He was glad for it, it meant no more pain, he heard Fawkes' voice in his head say 'I'm so sorry Harry, it was never meant to be like this.'
As Harry turned his head away from James to Fawkes James seemed to suddenly notice the bird and for the first time doubt about who Harry really was crept into him making him worry. Fawkes never went near anyone not even Dumbledore these days what was he doing by the boy. Looking at Harry as if seeing him for the first time he noticed how much smaller he was to the Harry he knew. His Harry was closer to eighteen and even if he was as emaciated as that he should have been bigger. How had he not noticed that before? There was something missing as well from this Harry that was on the other one and that was a lightning bolt scar over his eye. He knew that scar could not be hidden or removed he had tried and sent Harry to different healers to get rid of it but was told it was there to stay. Finally his eyes searched for something he knew could not be hidden by magic or removed but Harry definitely had and that was the dark mark, however when he saw the boy's left arm with the shredded clothes barley covering it there was nothing.
His heart began to beat faster as he put two and two together, they had tortured an innocent to the brink of death and it looked like they had allowed their fears to overrule their common sense. He remembered the boy trying to convey to them that he was not who they thought he was but they were so consumed with rage and anger of the past they didn't want to listen. He felt sick as he remembered some of the days he had come in and tortured the boy just to get rid of his frustrations form everything. When had he turned into a monster? He walked closer to Harry just as he spoke and with his last breathe Harry said "It's alright Fawkes it's over now, there is no more pain." Harry raised his hand to stroke Fawkes but it fell before it reached the bird.
James didn't notice that Dumbledore and some of the order were behind him watching the scene. Dumbledore had a look of horror on his face as he watched his familiar weep over the boy. He finally understood why Fawkes had been pulling away from him. He felt his bond to Fawkes break the moment the boy died.
Eyes widening he shouted "Fawkes!" However Fawkes trilled the saddest tune they had ever heard conveying his mourning. He rose into the air wings spread out and he began to burn. The fire got so unbearably hot the occupants of the cell who were still alive had to run out to avoid being burned. They watched from outside as Harry's body was consumed by the fire and turned to ash. However what they were not expecting was a being standing over the ash only wearing black sweat pants and huge wings on his back just as big as he was tall and very wide.
The being reached down into the ash and pulled out the boy from them completely healed. Cradling the boy the being spoke softly to him. "Harry! Come on wake up for me."
Harry slowly opened his eyes and the first thing he saw were silver eyes staring right back at him. He knew those eyes "Oh good, you are here, can I cross over now?" The shook his head sadly at Harry and said "Harry, you know what we talked about the last time we spoke, I can't let you do that."
Pulling himself up to stand on his own Harry shouted "Haven't I been through enough?"
The pain on the being's face was clear as he said "Yes Harry you have, but that is not the reason you are still here. I had hoped it would be clear by now. I am not allowed to tell you, you have to figure it out for yourself."
Harry stared into the being's face and thought back to every time they met. Which was pretty much every time he died. It was always the same thing he was not allowed to move on but if he was honest with himself he did not really want to do that at the moment especially knowing who was waiting for him at the other end, he had suffered for a long time at the hands of the people wearing the faces of those that he cared about the most he was not so keen to be seeing them again so soon. Instead he took a step toward the being reached out pulled Thanatos to himself before he placed his lips over his. He felt so stupid for not realising earlier what Thanatos had been trying to tell him. The choice had to be his own to give up his mortality. As soon as his lips touched Thanatos' he felt whole as if he had been living a half-life and didn't know it and only just now found his missing half.
When they finally parted Harry asked "Is that what you meant?"
Smiling Thanatos said "Finally, for a moment there I thought I was going to have to do something drastic."
They kissed again forgetting that they had an audience, an audience who was going to regret what they had done to the soul mate of death himself.
Thanatos turned to those who tortured his mate and said "I'll prepare for your arrival when you die, which won't be long now seeing as you have tortured to death the only hope you had of defeating Riddle." He didn't wait to hear the begging and pleading that occurred as he disappeared from the room with Harry still in his arms. He stood at the edge of the world and unleashed the apocalypse and watched as it began to burn. The fury he felt inside was new to him. He did not know how to contain it.
Harry turned to him pleadingly and said "Thanatos as much as I would like vengeance against them for what they did it is not fair to punish the rest of the world for it. Please."
Harry's imploring voice and pleading look gave him the strength he needed to reign in his anger. A part of him felt a little fear that someone else had such complete control of his being enough to stop his anger in its path. However seeing the innocence in his mate's face he knew his fears were groundless. Harry would not abuse that power over him, even if their bond didn't tell him how Harry felt about him the mere fact that he was begging for the lives of people who had put him through hell whether directly or indirectly told him so.
Taking a calming breath Thanatos calmed his rage. As furious as he was the last thing he wanted was to upset Harry. When he was calm enough he looked at Harry and said "If that is what you wish it shall be so. Although I have to say you are too forgiving for your own good."
Harry smiled and said "I did not say I have forgiven them but rather it would not be fair to lump the rest of humanity in the punishment for their actions."
Looking over the damage Thanatos said "Well at least the only places that have sustained the most damage is the wizarding world, not that there is much difference to what it was like before. It was already mostly destroyed."
Xxxx
The wizards watching Harry and Thanatos were in shock. They didn't even see their deaths coming in the form of black fire as soon as the two disappeared. They did however notice when they stood in line in a room with a tall intimidating man in a pinstriped suit asking them if they could pay for their passage to the underworld and if they couldn't they would be in the studio for a very long time to come unless someone else helped to pay their fare for them.
Xxx
Harry wasn't sure what he wanted at that moment. When Thanatos told him he had free reign could do anything he liked and Thanatos would be there with him whatever he decided, he felt a bit overwhelmed. He did consider perhaps going back to school and actually having a normal high school experience. Age wise he could pass for sixteen and he supposed he would have to learn everything he missed until the point where he was supposed to be at and even that wasn't a hindrance as he knew spells and potions that could bring him up to speed.
He made his decision and told Thanatos "I want to go back to school and experience some of the things other people took for granted that I never got to. I'm not talking about magic school, but the mundane one. It would mean living amongst the mundanes, are you ok with that?"
Harry had noticed Thanatos' impatience with humans and wasn't sure how he would feel about being around them. Brushing some of the hair away from Harry's face Thanatos smiled and said "We can go anywhere you like, I'm not bothered where as long as you are there. Do you wish to stay here in this world, go back to your old one or find a new one?"
Harry looked shocked and said "We can do that?"
Smiling Thanatos replied "Of course, as my mate you are able to go anywhere I can and as death is in every world that means every world there is. If you wish to explore each world you can at your leisure."
Harry smiled and stood on his toes and kissed him as Thanatos was a full head taller than him then said "Well what are we waiting for lets go exploring."
Thanatos was happy, he had arranged to have those who tortured his mate to wait until Harry had settled down somewhere and was happy. He would tend to their punishment personally but until then he had a mate to keep happy and right now he knew where to take him to begin their lives….
