Death Meister

Prologue:

Artemis Nee Potter was known in the History of Magic as the Girl who lived for being the first to ever survive being hit directly with the Killing Curse twice during the Phoenix Wars. The first time Artemis survived thanks to her mother's sacrifice and love which shielded her from the Dark Lord Tom Riddle and destroyed his corporeal body leaving him a shade. The second time she survived was during the battle that closed the chapter of the Phoenix Wars forever in 1998. Because of the 'Bond of Blood' created when Tom Riddle used Artemis's blood to resurrect himself, the Dark Lord acted as an anchor for Artemis's own soul which shielded her from his Killing Curse while inadvertently destroying the Horcrux in her scar. Artemis was actually dead at that point but chose to live in order to finish Tom Riddle forever. However because she was also the master of all three Deathly Hollow's her decision to defy death resulted in her losing her mortality. From then on Artemis would never be welcomed by death and as a result the Killing Curse would never affect her again. At that point Artemis gained two new titles in the eyes of the magical world, the Master of Death and the Living Martyr.

Artemis Potter actions during the Secret War better known in the magical world as the War of the Magi inspired the Press to style several more titles for her which was agreeable with the public opinion of the time. These were darker and less known but no less described her action during that war accurately. The Immortal Witch, the Dead Savior, and the Death Meister were but three of many other titles she was labeled in the defense of the magical world. It was also during this war that Artemis very nearly went dark in her grief, and without the support of her friends and the spite of the Ministry of Magic she would have. However while all those titles individually and together could be used to describe the idea behind the Savior of the magical world, none of them could describe the person behind the idea. It was for this reason that Artemis Nee Potter hid herself from the magical world in November 14, 2011 up to this very day.

Experts from 'A History of the Phoenix Wars' by Hermione Jane Granger

Chapter One: The Immortal Witch

Artemis Nee potter smiled melancholy as she closed the ancient book reverently and laid the old tome down with her friends other works on her stained oak table. It had been 3,894 years since Hermione had written this book in the September of 1995 when she was twenty-four and still her heart ached whenever she leafed through its pristine, crisp, pages. Only Hermione, her best friend had known the true reason why she had left the magical world despite how much it hurt to be away from her surviving friends. Only her Hermione had ever understood the real her and as such only she knew her secret, the real reason why she had left the magical world.

Artemis sighed deeply and inhaled the scents of old parchment, ink, and burning Cedar that crackled merrily in the large fireplace. She missed the scent of ink stained paper and pine that followed Hermione where she went. The books, scrolls, and manuscripts in the Ash wood book cases lining the curved walls of the semicircular room shook and creaked dangerously as her grief affected the world around her. Artemis quickly suppressed her emotions under the icy layers of her Occlumency, the Soul of Ice technique and reasserted the unbreakable force of her will and the shaking stopped. Artemis sighed tiredly and glanced around lazily to see that nothing had broken in her little lapse in control, and to make sure that her collection of ancient works were undamaged. Each shelf was filled with the written works of and notes of people like Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, and even Hermione which lay on oak desk as well as many others.

Artemis sighed and lay back in her comfy chair as she contemplated this development. Her magic had been growing more copious and intense since it had been allowed to mature, and had been refined form nearly three-hundred centuries of experience and harsh practice. Considering she was a match for Tom Riddle when she was seventeen, Artemis had become incomprehensibly powerful as she had aged and she would keep getting stronger until the day she died. As a direct result her emotions heightened to incomprehensible heights at the same rate. Her magic actually become so intensely focused and refined that it responded to even subconsciously intent and emotion. Even without the use of a wand to draw out, mold, and amplify her magic Artemis was still able to cast spells not even Dumbledore could with his wand. When she actually used a wand the only figures in magical history that could compare to her were the likes Merlin of Camelot, Morgan Le Fay, and Viviane the Lady of the Lake.

The problem she faced first began to manifest when she was twenty years old when her magic achieved a state of strength not seen in centuries. At first it was very minor, almost unnoticeable and she wrote if off as a lack of control and accidental magic. However as the years past and the problem began to get more noticeable she turned to meditation to take of it, still thinking it was a matter of control. However when she turned fifty she figured out that despite her unmatched degree of magical control her magic was still acting by itself when she wasn't paying attention. Of course magic itself was quasi-sentient but even then it only did anything accordance to either protect its wielder or to enforce Unbreakable Vows. It was when she finally turned eighty that she realized that the problem was that she was simply too magically powerful and it was increasing the intensity of her emotions. Of course, accidental magic only occurred when a wizard or witch experienced extreme emotion and since her ability to feel emotion had heighted along with the intensity of her magic her magic was literally responding to her moods.

Artemis figured that she could use this to her advantage and tried to cast spells just by alternating between emotions and her level of extreme magical control. Her magic even sensed her intent and tried to accommodate her, it took around five years to get the emotional control and to lay down the groundwork for individual spells, charms, jinx's, and curses. After that she mastered all the spells she knew using emotional control and figured out that she didn't even need to use a wand to cast them although it took about four years. Something never before achieved by any wizard or witch in recorded history. It helped immensely if she though the name of the spell she was trying to perform but she eventually managed to cast spells through emotion and intent alone. At that point her control was such that if she was thirsty her magic simply rehydrated her body with summoned water directly into her cells. If she was hungry then her magic would simply multiply the nutrients in her body which was allowed under Gamp's law of Elemental Transfiguration.

However it was only when she was one-hundred and ten when she realized fully the down side to this, her magic hadn't stopped growing and neither had the intensity of her emotions. Her magic, which had been conditioned to respond to her emotion and intent alone, began to respond to her subconscious intent and emotion. If she was sad her magic became dark and drained the happiness from those around her which had the effect of cheering charm on her. If she was happy she radiated it like she herself was a Patroness and everyone around became happy and highly susceptive to suggestions from her. If she was angry her magic became heavy lashed out at everything with massive storms large enough to cover entire continents. In her grief the very earth trembled and heaved in anguish and despair. Artemis tried desperately to stop this but her emotions had become too strong to control and no matter where she was on the planet her magic had grown strong enough to affect the entire world. During this phase of her life people of the magical and muggle world who had long since become one considered her a natural disaster. They had learned that no force of magic of technology was great to subdue her, much less kill her.

Her salvation eventually came ten years later in the form of an old Martial Artist. He offered to teach her a technique to control her spirit which was the source of magic to enforce calm in her turbulent emotions. Then using the second part of the technique to contain her monstrous aura of magic to stop it from affecting the world around her; needless to say Artemis immediately accepted and began as soon as the master was ready. It took her barely a day to learn how to enforce calm on her spirit and emotions since it was simply another kind of magic, but it took her nearly a month to create a shell that could contain her magical aura and stop it from affecting the world around her. A downside was that she had to keep constant control of both aspects of the technique or her magic would get through.

Artemis shook herself from her memories and looked up from the old but still pristine book into a mirror she had unconsciously summoned with a thought. Despite having lived for 3,918 years she was not meant with the withered face of an old woman who had enjoyed life to its fullest. She saw the face of a nineteen year old with cascading dark red hair with evenly set glowing emerald green eyes, and lips that were not too full or to thin with even needle-like white teeth. Long pointed ears with seven stud earrings in each stuck out of her hair. Her completion was a brilliant bronze free of any freckles or other natural imperfections. Artemis brushed a bit of hair out of her eyes with long bony, knobby, fingers that ended in sharply pointed digits that resembled claws. All her changes were the effects of the inconceivable amounts of quasi-intelligent magic barely contained within her body slowly adapting her body to handle the extreme stress her body was under from housing so much magic. Some rather insensitive wizards and witches even thought she was a fey due the sheer scope of her magic and her appearance. The only imperfection visible on her body from this angle was the single pencil width jagged white scar circling her neck like a collar.

Artemis stared long and hard at that single white scar before slowly standing, her magic sensing her intent, immediately shrunk the desk she sat at and transfigured the standard wall mirror into a Vanity mirror. Artemis stared at her reflection intently; she was dressed in a white sleeveless Tube-top, Sweat's and white Tabi socks. On her neck she constantly wore four gold Jeweled Pendants with a different Gemstone socketed in each one. The first Pendant was socketed with a perfectly smooth oval Aquamarine jewel with rivets made of delicately carved Boji stone. The second amulet held a clear Pearl shaped emerald which like the first amulet had rivets of Boji stone. The third Amulet was a perfectly cut rectangular Hematite with similar rivets to the first and second. The fourth and last amulet had a square cut piece of Moldavite but this one had rivets made of copper. The seven studs in each of her ears were all either Turquoise or Lapis Lazuli with the Turquoise having Boji stone fittings while the Lapis Lazuli had copper ones.

She noted that her arms were moderately toned and possessed extremely compact and highly defined muscle. However like the rest of her the only flaws were located at the middle of her biceps, which were both ringed with a similar pencil width jagged white scar. She knew that if she were to lift the legs of her Sweats that she would see similar scars around the middle of both her lower thighs. No other scars she had ever gained in battle had ever been as deep or clean as the five scars that marked her body now and so had healed perfectly with the aid of magic.

Artemis had found out the hard way the consequences of her decisions to live when she had been hit with Tom Riddle's killing curse to destroy the Horcrux in her Scar. At that time she had been the owner of all three Deathly Hollow's even if she had thrown the Resurrection Stone into the Forbidden Forest. When she 'died' and chose to live to finally kill Tom Riddle she had effectively given up her mortality. She didn't discover this until two years later when she was 19 and hunting a new group that called itself the Oprichniki on Strathclyde Lock's solitary island in the middle of the Town of Larkhall and Uddingston in Scotland. Artemis had been fighting a particularly strong Oprichniki with ambitions of becoming a Dark Lord while the others Oprichniki beat a hasty retreat. By this point she already had her other four scars and wasn't in the mood for a fifth. The Oprichniki had hit her with a powerful silently cast Diffindo which took off her head just above her collarbone just as she hit him with a Defodio that gorged out his heart.

They had both fallen in a spray of blood and Artemis had waited for death to come serenely, glad that she could finally rest and once again join her loved ones. She waited for hours and yet she never died and with mounting horror realized that she could still feel and move her body even when her head was cleanly and completely severed. Eventually she had forced her body to stand and pick up her own head, an experience that traumatized her severely. She still had nightmares about that to this day.

Artemis shuddered just remembering what she was now calling the 'Incident', Hermione herself had never seemed to have gotten over it either. Especially since while still in shock she had Apparated to Hermione and managed to severely splice herself, asking if she could reattach her head. Of course Hermione had freaked but she managed to calm down both of them enough so that she could heal the parts of her body that had been spliced. Hermione had also wound up doing the same to Artemis's severed head which thankfully worked. That was what left her with the scar on her neck. That was the only reason Hermione knew her secret and why she trusted her implicitly.

Artemis actually genuinely smiled when she recalled the lengths Hermione and her went to ensure her location and secret stayed secret once they figured out what happened. They had used a slew of unorthodox and obscure magic hidden in the Muggle culture to protect her home and the secret of where it was. There were actually six main disciplines that she and the various individual groups of Oprichniki had uncovered in what was now known in the magical world as the War of the Magi. Like the muggle Cold War between America and Russia, the secret war had been about espionage and gathering knowledge more than any actual fighting.

Artemis finally looked away from the vanity mirror, her scar had brought up the fact that no one knew where she lived and no owl could find her even in today's society. That was because she and Hermione had collaborated and had discovered a way to create an extremely magic extensive spell like the Fidelius Charm. Using a number of previously unknown magick's, and old school charm work they had created a complex piece of ritualistic soul magic. The ritual allowed Artemis to hide not only the knowledge of her home but the actual dwelling itself inside an extra dimension she created in her soul. However, even with the amplifying power of the secret magick's the ritual could only be attempted with someone of her level of massive magic wielding one of the special staffs she created the secret magick she discovered. Even then it was only possible by drawing on the magic of the earth itself through a convergence of Ley Lines. Artemis did the Arithmancy and theorized that if she combined the Elder Wand with her prepared Elder wood staff she created for it then she would actually have the necessary magical might to perform the ritual herself but she dared not. That kind of power was not meant for mortal hands.

Artemis shook herself out of her remembrance and stretched luxuriously as her bones popped back into place with a series of satisfying cracks. Of course she hadn't stopped practicing the forms of magic that she had discovered; she even had a neat little schedule Hermione had made for her after she offered to share the knowledge with her. However Hermione had accepted all but one form of physical magic saying that she was a scholar and a wizard, not a martial artist.

Artemis rubbed her Aquamarine amulet, a habit she picked up while thinking deeply. She slowly walked out of her study, the solid oak door opening itself for her and despite the fact that the door should have lead to her family library it instead opened to her room. The bedroom was mostly circular with a single queen sized bed at the back with blue and purple blankets and pillows. Along the walls were copper braziers that contained a multitude of gently glowing crystals called Crystal Shrines. They not only provided light but also a low powered calming aura that helped her think and sleep. The floor was covered with a rich dark blue carpet kept meticulously clean by her House Elf's. She had taken it as a hobby to take on House Elf's who had been freed by their masters like Winky had been at the Quiditch World Cup. As a result Artemis was now the proud owner twenty-seven new House Elf's at this point plus the two House Elf children Dobby and Winky had. While most of her House Elf's didn't want to be paid or allowed to wear anything other than rags the one or two odd ones that did were allowed to and were even paid. However since both only wanted a few Knut a month she hadn't exactly been stretched for gold.

That was also a good thing since she had been expanding her home into a sort of mansion over the years to make room for her various projects. Because of this none of the House Elf's had a lack of work to do and so were content however her house was now also self sufficient. She had actually created two massive spaces thousands of acres in every direction with her the help of her staff even though it left her winded. In one she planted a dozen of every Muggle plant that related to Herbal healing as well as all known fruit and vegetable baring plants, all with spells made them immune to type of infection or infestation. Then she completed it by adding a variety of animals and insects and let them stabilize the ecosystem she had built. The other space was dedicated to magical plants and non-intelligent magical animals.

Artemis had then proceeded to create two massive storage spaces twice the size of both other spaces combined, although that left her breathless and nearly drained since she did it right after making the first spaces. She had wanted to test how much she had since she didn't have an opportunity at any other time. One of these storage area's was dedicated to the fruits, vegetables and herbs her House Elf's harvested as well as magical ingredients. The other was dedicated to raw material and equipment, all neatly organized. It took her around twenty years and lots of investments in the Muggle world before she had the raw materials spaces fully stocked. If someone was wondering why she was doing all this, the simplest and most truthful answer was that she was board and so that she didn't have to go out in the Muggle or magical worlds until she found a way to destroy the Deathly Hollows.

The thought of the Deathly Hollows brought up a fact that still made her cry both happy and bitter tears. 3,742 years ago Hermione had died of natural causes at the tender age of one-hundred and ninety-six. She had died peacefully in bed surrounded by four generation of her children who although sometimes had problems had all loved her dearly. The Healer said that her heart had simply stopped beating, and that she died with a smile on her face. Artemis was happy that her best friend had finally found peace in deaths welcoming embrace, but at the same time was also sad and bitter that she would never know the same. At that point Artemis had been truly alone in this world and had nothing to live for, she still managed to keep up with the news of the world with her House Elf's though. Still even after three-thousand eight-hundred years of constant research and literally thousands of magical breakthroughs mostly made by Artemis herself she hadn't even found a clue on how to destroy the Deathly Hollow's or even make restore her mortality. At this point she considered it an impossibility to destroy the Deathly Hollows or herself by any magical or even Muggle means unless she jumped into a Blackhole. Heck, she even tried throwing them all and herself into the Veil in the Death Chamber in the Department of Mysteries and they just ended up back in her house the same moment she did…but what if she threw herself out of reality?

Artemis paused suddenly feet away from her bed with a dumbstruck look on her face as the magical and scientific theory rand through her mind at a pace that would leave a super computer envious. She suddenly grinned, she didn't know if it was possible within the next year or not but what she did know was that the laws of physics and magic didn't forbid it. In fact the magical world even had a spell to banish things from this dimension or reality and used it all the time! However there was a massive difference between banishing a cup of spilt milk and banishing the strongest magical being ever to be conceived in the magical world.

Still if those damned Hollows liked her so much then when she banished herself they would be forced to follow her since she was their master. She already had her affairs in order; everything she owned on the outside world would be divided between Hermione's direct families if she ever managed to die. Considering that she had a literal empire in the Muggle and magical world from investments in nearly everything Hermione's family wouldn't even feel a dent for at least seven generation even if they all went wild. Still she wouldn't get anything done if she didn't get her rest; she already stayed up for the past week working on improving her Holly and Phoenix feather staff. It even used her wand as its own core.

XXXxxx…Three Years later…xxxXXX

With the maniacal grin Artemis cheered in triumph as her test succeeded and a normal rock packed with a truly massive amount of magic was banished successfully. She had created a spell formula capable of banishing anything living or dead and no matter how much magic they had. However if her calculations were correct then only something of considerably more magical power could banish a magical living thing. The only thing with enough magic to banish her was the planet itself and it was highly inadvisable to tamper with the magical fields of the Earth itself. However she had already gotten past that; she had created twenty-four magical generators in strategically placed positions throughout her mansion, and connected them to a form of advanced pensive construct. It took the form of a large brass ball in an expanded room just beyond her private study.

It had all the memories Hermione had gifted her of her entire life in case she passed on before Artemis herself but it lacked her soul. Still it also possessed the sum total of all the knowledge of human-kind, both magical and muggle along with the capacity to learn and feel emotion. It we her tribute to Hermione since she was always saying that she wanted to know everything in the world. Most would call it the greatest achievement of man-kind but Artemis called it friend. The generators themselves were the magical equivalent of blood incubators which created pure magic which though still attuned to her could be used by the pensive construct. Each generator could produce as much magic as she herself could and would prove sufficiently powerful enough to banish her. It was actually exceedingly simple but at the same time incredibly complex.

Still she was finally finished with all her testing and everything was ready and in place, the only problem was that her mansion was still in a dimension locked inside her soul. She couldn't really cancel the ritual since it had been integrated into her soul and she would need much more magic then it took to cast to break it. Not even with the Elder Wand converted into a staff and the power of the ritual she used to cast the spell would she have enough magic to sunder her soul again. That meant that her home would be banished with her and everything inside it, her House Elf's would actually prefer to die with her even if she didn't want them too. Still all the knowledge she collected throughout time would be lost but she would be damned before she left her precious books here. That meant that they would come with and when she was reincarnated her reincarnation would have a pleasant surprise waiting for her or him.

With a wave of her wrist she summoned her battle gear she herself had custom made from the best materials of both worlds. The first thing she summoned was a enchanted long sleeved dragon-skin robe, with a weave of layered carbon nano-fibers encased in Black Crepe de Chine silk as padding. A careless shrug summoned an intricately engraved enchanted Chest Plate with a shirt of Scale-mail made of high grade stainless steel and reinforced with small gold studs. A roll of the shoulders summoned enchanted furred dragon-skin Pauldron's reinforced with steel bands and rivets. A flick of her feet summoned enchanted steel plated Tabi Boots which were hidden beneath her robe. A roll of her wrists summoned enchanted plated steel gauntlets complete with leather gloves and iron knuckles. With a twirl she summoned an enchanted plated dragon-skin battle skirt. With a flick of both hands she summoned her prize creation, an enchanted red bandana which she used to cover her noise, mouth and neck. The last part of her ensemble was an enchanted steel Sugegasa hat that covered the back and sides of her neck with a chainmail type mesh with two enchanted jewels hanging from it that held two talismans.

Then with a flick of her hand she summoned the Elder Wand from her private study as well as a dragon hide holster that strapped itself to her steel plated wrist where the wand sheathed itself. With a twitch of her finger she summoned the Resurrection Stone which she had fitted to a gold ring onto her steel plated middle finger on her right hand from a secret compartment in her room. Finally she summoned her Invisibility Cloak and last of the three Deathly Hollow's which fashioned itself into a hooded traveling cloak which covered her completely.

Finally with a twist of her wrist she summoned a pure white staff with a small crack as it Apparated to her hand, a handy function for when it got lost in a fight. The staff itself comprised of a strait seven foot shaft three inches thick, and made of polished white holly like her wand had been. It had been charmed unbreakable with the Elder Wand and all the magic she could bring to bear, as well as a spelled so that it could Apparate to her when she willed it. The staff's tip had magically grown and hardened fingerlike protrusions to which held a flawless diamond cut clear ruby the size of her fist which was anchored there with a Permanente sticking charm. The Ruby itself glowed with an ominously red aura which signified massive amounts of stored magic pre-molded into offensive spells and charms just waiting to be unleashed. The staff and her face were the only things now visible.

With a ringing snap of her claw-like fingers all twenty-four of her House Elf's assembled before her. Artemis's grin lost its manic quality at the sight of them and was replaced with genuine love and affection. "Today I am going to banish myself from this dimension as well as the Deathly Hollow's. When I do hopefully my soul and body taken physically out of this dimension along with the Deathly Hollow's, however when that happens so will this house since it is physically hidden inside my soul, when that happens everything in this house follow. I called you here to ask you to leave if you wish to live. I can leave you with Hermione's direct descendants or you may choose to stay here but I urge you to choose to live. I have already had a full life and wish to finally be embraced by death even though I will probably never be reunited with my loved ones."

The House Elf's looked at each other and began whispering furiously before they hugged and nodded as one. Before they even spoke Artemis knew what they chose and closed her eyes asking her friends for forgiveness. When she opened her eyes all her House Elf's said as one, "We will stay with you and this house even if in death."

Artemis nodded and almost reconsidered banishing herself if only to save her precious House Elf's, but she was simply too tired of life and desperately wanted to reunite with her friends and loved ones. That decided Artemis nodded dismissing her House Elf's who Apparated back to their work before she slowly turned and walked back to the door. When it opened it again defied logic and opened to the room that stored the pensive construct she had created. The room it was housed in was circular and about twenty by twenty yards with the pensive construct on a pedestal on a raised dais in the middle of the room.

As Artemis approached the pensive construct 'spoke', its brass surface rippling like liquid as it did. "Hello Artemis."

Artemis smiled genuinely and walked forward before gently running her hands over the liquid-like surface of the pensive construct. "Hello Hermione, I am afraid that it is time for us to go. My offer to let you out in a secure room in the outside world is still valid you know. You could still remotely activate the banishing charm from there and there are more generators to draw power from."

A ghostly shade which she knew to be a mixture of spells including a corporeal Patroness of Hermione as she had seen her at twenty-four appeared beside her. The shade radiated sadness and heart ache that seemed dull to her since her own emotions were so intense. "I know that I am not really your Hermione but I have her memories and I love you as much as she did. I cannot stand the thought of leaving you alone again and so I will not. I will live on as long as you do and be there for you when no one else will or can. Besides if this does kill you then I want to die with you."

Artemis had to intensify her soul of ice to stop from breaking down even as tears froze as they feel from her eyes. Even though she knew it was not her Hermione speaking she knew the feeling were. With a shaky nod Artemis nodded in gratitude and when she had gathered her composure she finally spoke. "I am ready."

Hermione simply nodded then everything went white.