DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter Belongs To J.K. Rowling and not to me. I make no profit off this story, so don't sue. Really, don't sue, it'll be a waste of your time anyway seeing as I'm broke.
PROLOGUEThe final battel was over, Voldemort was defeated and the war was over. However, it was not without its price as those on Earth knew. Mothers grieved over lost children, wives over husbands, brothers over sisters, friends over friends. There was not a person in the wizarding world whom the war did not touch in some way, and many felt the price was too high. So many cursed Fate for placing such a large cost on their victory.
What they didn't realise was that Fate herself was cursing the outcome of the war.
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In a place that was no place, a young woman who looked barely out of her teens paced along a highly polished marble floor, repeatedly sending furious glances at a large table set up in middle of the room. The room itself was beautiful, yet also strange even by the liberal standards of the wizarding world. The floor was polished marble, as previously stated, as were the beautifully carved columns that filled the large space. There were several pieces of beautifully crafted furniture throughout the room, all seemingly coming from different cultures and times periods. There was a modern day designer couch sitting not far from a sixteenth century French desk with matching chair; and not too far from that a copper bench that would not be out of place in the private quarters of a noble woman in 2000 BC Egypt, and next to that some strange piece that was hard to place just what it was but seemed to come from some far in the future space age. Even stranger despite the fact that many of the pieces of furniture seemed to be genuine antiques, everything in the room seemed brand new. What was probably the strangest thing of all though were the many wide windows that sat in the wall. Every single one showed a beautiful view, yet everything single one was something completely different. A sandy white beach at sunset, a snowy mountain during the middle of the day, a clearing in a forest in the middle of the night. There was no order to any of it.
Yet the woman pacing paid no attention to any of this. She was far too used to it to be even the least bit curious anymore, if she ever was. And besides she had far too many important things to worry about right now. The woman had bright red hair, so vivid it would put the Weasley's to shame. Her skin was a pale and smooth as the marble of the room surrounding her, and her features were so perfect they were almost inhuman. Her eyes were the most dramatic part of her, for depending on how the light hit them they seemed to be all the colours of the rainbow. The woman in question was in fact not a woman at all. She was so much more. She was Fate.
Yes, Fate. The Fate. And Fate was not having a good decade.
All her carefully ordered plans, all her lovely pre-decided outcomes were falling to bits around her. Bloody wizards, did they have to meddle in everything? She never should have released that prophecy, it was what had started this whole mess. Yes, Harry Potter was meant to defeat Voldemort, and he did, but did he have to make such a mess doing it? Not that she blamed Harry of course, the poor dear did the best he could with what he had been given. But really, between Voldemort taking such extreme measures to stop his own destiny, and that old fool Dumbledore and his I-know-best-about-everything-and-everyone-must-do-exactly-as-I-say-even-when-I-have-no-idea-whats-going-on attitude it was no wonder things got out of control.
And boy, did they ever get out of control! Hogwarts was half in ruins, the Ministry Of Magic was in shambles (not, Fate admitted, that that was anything new since that idiot Fudge took over. The idiots that followed weren't much better either), relations between the different magical races were at an all time low, and hundreds were dead before their time. What a nightmare, and what was worse Fate knew that there was only one way to clean it up.
Fate sighed in disgust as she ran her hand through her hair once more and glared at the table in front of her again. This table was in fact the most important item in the room, despite the fact that it almost looked normal compared to the many strange and wonderful objects surrounding it. It was this on table that Fate organised the destinies of mortals and planned out their lives. Not entirely of course, free will and all that, or else this mess she had got into would never have happened. Still, she did have a far amount of say in what happened on Earth. Most of the time.
Set out in the centre of the table, surrounded by charts and piles of notebooks, was what looked like a giant game board with small yet expertly crafted figurines. The game board changed regularly to reflect which society Fate was focusing on at that moment. At that moment the game board showed the British Wizarding World as it was at this point in time. The game board did not look healthy however, and many of the figurines were lying on their sides. These represented those recently fallen.
Fate sighed in regret as she looked almost sadly at those fallen pieces. This was not supposed to happen. Remus and Dora were supposed to be alive for years to come to raise Teddy themselves, and to give him a younger sister. Severus Snape was supposed to live beyond the battle, to go on to create a cure of Lycanthropy amongst other things, finally forgiving himself for past mistakes. Fred Weasley was supposed to be creating prank items to terrorise teachers the world over for years to come. Collin Creevy was supposed to become a professional photographer and have two children with a lovely French witch he would have met the following year.
And it wasn't just from this battle that people lost their lives too early. Sirius Black wasn't supposed to fall through the veil, he was supposed to prove his innocence and help Harry Potter through the difficult final years to meet his destiny. Dumbledore, meddlesome old coot that he was, was supposed to survive the war only to die peacefully in his sleep two years later and finally be reunited with the parents and sister he had loved so much. Poor Dobby the house elf, he was supposed to live to the fullest and help prove to all the other poor abused house elves out there that they were meant for more than slavery. And don't even get Fate started on all the poor Muggles who had lost their lives unfairly to that mad man and his equally crazy followers.
Fate barely registered the urge to growl out loud. This was nuts! She knew, despite her best efforts that she couldn't always expect her plans to go the way she wanted too. That sometimes sadly people died before their time and there was nothing even she could do about it. She knew all of this, but this was ridiculous! Things hadn't gotten this out of her control since that whole Pandora's Box incident.
Well, Fate thought angrily, there was no way she was putting up with this anymore. There was no way she was letting that snake wannabe get away with messing with her lovely plans any more. Voldemort wanted a fight, well he was going to get one. He might have cheated by using the bloody Horcruxes, but she could cheat too and what's more she could do it better! He wanted to defy death? Well she would defy time itself!
"But," Fate mused out loud. "If I'm going to do this I'll need some help. An Avatar. Someone who can act on the Mortal Plane in my name. Someone who will be in position to help me clean up this mess. Hmm, it'll have to be someone who died, sending a living person back in time uses so much energy and I have the feeling I'm already going to be working flat out keeping everything on track this time. I'll need all the power I can get. Now let us see, who to choose from?"
With a wave of her hand, the game board cleared itself of all but the fallen figurines, which instantly righted themselves and gathered in neat vows before her, like good little solders awaiting orders.
"Humm." Fate said, looking the figurines over carefully. "Let's see, it'll have to be someone close to Harry. I'll need my Avatar in a position to act after all." Instantly most of the figures disappeared. "And it'll need to be someone who won't raise suspicion from being too close to the 'chosen one'. I can't use someone like Snape after all, it would set off too many alarm bells in certain circles." A few more figurines disappeared, and Fate carefully looked over the ones that were left.
"Well, Dumbledore might be good in the way that he can get people's attention, but he's a definite out." Fate mused, looking at the long bearded figurine. "He'll want to do everything his way and not listen to me at all." The little Dumbleodore figurine instantly vanished.
"Sirius and Remus on the other hands, I would love to use." Fate said, looking fondly at the two mini Marauders. "Such nice young men, despite all their pranks and jokes, and they'd do anything for little Harry. However, society would make it so hard from either of them to get close to him, at least at first. Such a pity." Two more figures vanished.
"Now Moody, well he would be a powerful weapon when combined with my knowledge. Too bad he's such a paranoid nut case that no one would believe him. He's out." The little, very battered looking figurine was instantly gone.
"Tonks would make such a good bodyguard with her Auror training, but it would be too hard to get her in place until too late, so she's out." Another figure, this one with ever changing hair colours, also disappeared.
"And these younger students will have to go too, I'm afraid. I can't use anyone younger than Harry, otherwise with his Hero Complex he'd try to protect them instead of the other way around." The figurine that looked like Colin Creevy along with several others vanished.
There weren't many figurines left, and Fate scowled at her remaining choices.
"Damn it all." Fate muttered. "I need someone brave, who's not afraid to take risks others might consider crazy. Someone creative enough to think his or her way out of unusual circumstances. Someone who doesn't mind breaking the rules when they get in their way. Someone who'll bring their own brand of mayhem to offset all the over-complicated plans Dumbledore set forth in his misguided attempts to help the 'greater good'. Someone… someone…" Fate trailed off as her gaze fell on one of the remaining figurines.
"No." She said slowly. "No, I couldn't use him. Could I?"