A/N: Quick Note, I haven't given up on my other story To Be A Potter I'm just currently a little stuck with where I want the whole thing to go, I may decide to rewrite parts of it and see if I can get something that I can work with going.
Anyway here's a new story that I've been working on a little.
The sun was just beginning to breach the horizon for the morning of October the thirty first. It had been many years since Harry had last seen what used to be his only friends, now looking across at the palace that once used to be Nurmengard, now turned into a grand palace as the heart of the Magical Federation.
Giving out a small humourless laugh Harry couldn't help but remark to himself about the building "It was supposed to be a symbol. The end of pure-blood supremacy, the beginning of a golden age of magic." Looking towards his only companion of the last five years "Now it's just a symbol of how magicals rule over everything especially those that don't have magic."
"It's time Master Harry Potter sir" came the voice of his small companion.
"It been many years since you've called me that Dobby" Harry said with a smile upon his face.
"It seemed fitting, sir. All the checks are finished and everything's in place" Dobby replied looking at the palace in-front of them. Harry and Dobby had spent the last few years planning this, a ritual circle the likes of which the magical world has never seen four point two kilometres in diameter around a large ritual stone hidden in the centre of the palace placed there by Harry almost six months ago now. Breaking into a place like that would never be easy, but the invisibility cloak did make life a lot easier in getting into places where he shouldn't be able to. Around the edge of the circle was two thousand one hundred and eighty seven pieces of magically folded iron plates etched with runes and buried in the earth so just the top of it was showing.
"Who would have thought that we would be the ones to attempt to bring about the end of the wizarding world Dobby?" said Harry with a shake of his head.
"You must be going nows sir. The guards are changing" Dobby replied seeing the large magically reinforced doors to the palace opening. Harry took in a deep breath of the crisp morning air, trying to steady himself before pulling out a small ring, a cloak and a wand from his pack and placing them on. The Deathly Hallows belonged to him again, it took some time to track down the auror that arrested him when he was sent to Azkaban but they found him in the end. Aparantly he was given a bonus for capturing the man-who-turned-dark, or whatever it was they were calling him that week, and retired after, giving no chance for anyone else to disarm him and become the master of the elder wand. The cloak and ring were stashed in safe locations where no one could find them, so even with his seven years in Azkaban he was able to easily retrieve them. Placing the ring on and the cloak, which he long ago found could be worn as an actual cloak that would only turn the wearer invisible if they willed it, and taking hold of the elder wand he could feel the power coursing through him from the three relics.
"And so I become death, the destroyer of worlds" Harry couldn't remember who had said it but thought it was strangely fitting given the history of these objects and what he was just about to do. Neither of the two companions noticing the slight dark aura given off by the three objects seeping into Harry. "See you on the other side my friend." and with a small smile and wave to Dobby, Harry was off, turning into a dark mist much like that the Death Eaters used to use, after all apparition was impossible this close to Nurmengard, but that didn't mean other means of travel were impossible.
As Harry approached the still opening gates, covering the kilometre and a half to the palace in no time he began to be able to see the guards starting to leave, their shift over, and so too would their lives be. No matter who they are, no matter who they were Harry decided if they could work for Odin and Hecate then they deserved to die for the troubles they have caused. Willing the cloak to cover himself and turn himself invisible Harry carried on at his pace, beginning to cast wide area cutting curses against the guards leaving, all at neck height or there about. None of them know what had happened as they began to fall to the ground but as soon as their blood touched the floor it disappeared , being pulled into the ritual, taking their blood and their magic to power itself. Harry knew the amount of blood and magic that would need to be fed to it would be immense, about that of everyone in the palace, Harry had made sure that Odin and Hecate would be here, it was somewhat ironic that the day of their downfall, the downfall of the magical world would be on the same day he was hailed to have saved it Harry thought as he continued into the palace firing silent cutting curses at any guard he came across. Although he knew that he would have to make some sound soon to draw all the guards out he needed to reach the Library of Blood before he could do that.
It wasn't long till Harry reached where he needed to be, the alarm was raised not long ago, someone must have come across one of the bodies he left behind, blood and magic drained from it. Some might think it a highly coordinated attack by one of the remaining vampire covens after the new laws demanded them to register and drink an artificially created blood, which from what he heard was actually a slow acting poison that would cause the vampire to slowly burn from the inside till there was nothing left of them. Of course once the covens found this out many of them attacked the local governments, which lead to them being classified as a kill of sight creature. The Grim Legion killed many of them, along with Odin himself, it just drove the vampires together, deeper underground and many thought it wouldn't be long till they pushed back after being hunted for so long. What they didn't know would just help Harry though, they hadn't seen or heard from him for around five years after they destroyed his home, destroyed the small group that he kept safe, destroyed everything that he cared about. They just assumed that he went made with grief, took his own life was the most likely outcome many of them said, little did they know he spent that time learning, devising a way to rid the world of what the Magical Federation had done to it.
The Library of Blood was literally that, it was a storage room for the blood of every magical in the world. Someone was born, their blood was tested and if it contained magic brought here and stored, if they ever committed a crime the magical signature at the location could be compared to those here and the culprit identified, and if they didn't use spells well then their DNA was also stored here. So upon seeing the shelves lined with thousands of vials on each shelf all magically shrunk and stored in crystal containers so the magic didn't interact with the magic in the blood but kept it fresh. Harry had no idea how many people blood was stored here, he took a guess once at the world magical population being somewhere around one and a half million or so but he had no idea how large other countries magical populations were and was mostly just guessing at that point. But looking at it now it felt like it was right give or take a few thousand or so who knew, he didn't really care though, it was just the thoughts that went through his head as he began to cast bombarda maxima at the support of every shelf and much of the room itself causing the whole building to shake as vials of blood from every magical around the world crashed to the ground disappearing as soon as it touched the floor, absorbed by the magic of the ritual.
Harry kept casting till he was sure that every vial was broken, and pieces of rubble that might hide some vials. Happy with his work he left but not before throwing in a small stone covered in runes. Shutting and sealing the door before a large muffled bang was heard, of course Harry could have just done this to start with but there was something satisfying about destroying lots of glass with magic, the rune was just there to make sure that all the vials were destroyed, pulling in all the air in the room before releasing it in a shock wave that would crush any glass or crystal remaining into a fine powder. Leaving the door Harry could now show himself to the guards and begin to clear out the palace of everyone here. Deciding that he should meet the most people on his way the the throne room he began to head there it was on the top floor of the twenty floors the palace had.
Walking through the hallways was the first time that Harry had ever really paid much attention to the looks of the place. The whole palace was made out of white marble with red carpet along the floor that was obviously stuck with charms to prevent it from sliding all over the place, the ceiling was carved into a half pipe with what looked to be like ivy carved into the marble covering it all along the halls. Along the walls every so often would be a small alcove with a statue of some sort in it with hanging baskets either side. The whole place was just over the top to him it was never a placed to be lived in, it was just a show of power, they thought of themselves as untouchable, oh how much he was going to enjoy destroying them. It was at this point he began to notice the lack of guards there should be many more that what he killed on his way in, willing himself invisible again after letting it drop in the Library of Blood.
Even as Harry approached the throne room he had not come across anyone else, no guards, no servants, no office works of the sort nothing. Approaching the dark mahogany doors that make up the entrance to the throne room and blasting them open to announce his arrival, Harry froze at the sight he saw on the other side of the door. All the guards, all the servants and all the other works lay on the floor their throats slit and their blood long since gone to the ritual or so he thought, when he caught sight of runes covering the whole floor of the throne room. From what he could see the runes all seemed to be magic siphoning and direction runes.
"They must be designed to take the magic from one place or person to another." thought Harry as he entered the room, dropping his invisibility as he could see a lone figure sitting in the high back throne upon the dais was Hecate breathing heavily as if from some significant exertion.
"I knew it was you Harry." Hecate began to smile, waving her arm as if gesturing to the room "do you like what I've done with the place? After all I need all the advantage I could get if I stand a chance to beat you, you were always the better fighter."
"What did you do Hecate?" Harry asked already knowing what it was that she had done. She had taken the magic from everyone here and planned to use it against him. It saved him some time and effort that was for sure.
"I did what needed to be done, for the greater good and all that. I took their magic, Odin included." Hecate began to stand "Shall we dance? This amount of magic is just simply too... intoxicating, it's just begging to be used" as soon as she had finished her sentence she had her wand in hand, the tip glowing a bright blue as lightning began to arc from it towards Harry, who simply raised his hand without his wand causing a bright silver shield to form in front of him. It was a spell he had once seen Voldemort use against Dumbledore many years ago, and although he never liked the man, he had grown to appreciate the spells he knew and his application of them. Whilst the lightning continued to batter against his shield causing a loud ringing to come from it and pushing him back from the force, Harry knew he wouldn't be able to hold the shield for long. Diving to the side as he dropped his shield allowing the lightning to sail past where he once stood, singing any bodies that it travelled near, leaving the smell of burnt flesh handing in the air, before striking the wall causing chips of marble to break away. Harry then began to send a multitude of cutting curses all of different variations some simple others darker. Hecate was forced to shield from the oncoming barrage of curses before Harry sent a blasting curse just in front of Hecate's shield forcing her to be thrown back into the throne.
"Avis" came Hecate's shout as she fell backwards, Harry had never seen so many birds summoned from a single spell before, hundreds of small yellow birds began to race towards Harry.
"Fiendfyre" Harry calmly intoned before a massive dragon made of pure fire sprung forth from Harry's wand towards the birds that were still being summoned, their numbers constantly rising before the dragon of fire could sweep through them leaving hundreds of birds on fire and plenty more as ash around the room before Hecate summoned a massive amount of water to extinguish the fiendfyre, causing massive amounts of steam to be produced that Harry quickly banished towards Hecate causing her to scream in pain as the steam scalded her skin. Harry took the advantage of Hecate being distracted by steam and pain and raised his wand, beginning to transfigure the marble floor into wolves and ravens sending them to attack Hecate forcing her to deal with the transfigured animals, sending cutting and explosive curses at them destroying the marble that they were made of.
Whilst Hecate was busy dealing with the transfigured animals Harry began to focus on the large glass window behind the throne a thirty meter long, ten meter tall depiction of the Magical Federation's logo. Pulling it towards him, the window began to crack, large fractures appearing all across the glass before the shards begin to fall still being pulled towards Harry before he began breaking the large shards into thousands of small shards that could still potentially kill someone before pulling them hard again towards him, but more importantly towards Hecate that stood between the window and him.
Hecate had nearly managed to deal with all the marble animals that are charging towards her when she could hear large cracking like that of glass breaking. The sudden realisation of what it was caused her to look towards the large window to see the whole window collapse and break into shards and fly towards her, the momentary lack of concentration caused one of the ravens to lodge itself in her back while a wolf bit her leg causing her to scream in pain and unleash a pulse of pure magic destroying the remaining marble animals and much of the glass.
Harry knew that he would win this fight even before it began, although Hecate had absorbed all this magic she still wasn't a fighter, even Odin the commander of the Grim Legion couldn't duel him by himself. So Harry knew he had won then but still he never messed around with his fights, a lucky curse could easily turn the tide of the battle and all he needed to do in this fight was get Hecate to bleed onto the floor so the ritual had some of her blood added to it. So it was at this point while Hecate was busy dealing with the glass heading towards her that Harry sent a small piercing curse towards her shooting straight through her back and her heart at that the fight was done, a few minutes after it began, all that magic and it still didn't help her. Approaching the body of Hecate as she began to collapse and die Harry had to know why she did it, why all those years ago she betrayed him.
"Why did you do it... Hermoine?" Harry asked looking down at her eyes and could see the slight widening from the surprise at being called by her old name.
"We... Us... Magicals... Muggles together can do so much" Hermoine said she knew she would be dead soon and that Harry had one she was stupid to try and take the magic and fight him herself she should have let Odin fight him at least he might have stood a chance against him.
"I know that Hermoine but, the compulsion charms, memory charms, potions and whatever else to get the muggle leaders to agree with you, and even then the people were still scared of magic" Harry knelt down next to Hermoine as he continued to talk "those wards were brilliant, I'll give you that, but Merlin Hermoine behaviour modifying wards to subdue and calm everyone was too far, their basically slaves to us, you could change the wards to make them angry, happy whatever you wanted, were not gods Hermoine so why? Why go through all of this?" tears began to fall from Harry's eyes as memories of all the betrayals and loss began to play in Harry's mind, he never understood why all those years ago when he decided to stand against Hermoine and Ron and stop them from try to erase all wizarding traditions and replace them with muggles ones. Harry never had much love or understanding for many of the old traditions, but the majority of them were harmless, different names or ways of celebrating the same festivals and Harry understood that the magical world was not the same as the muggle world, it was like a different country where you respected that they might do things a little different then what you are used to. So when Harry stood against them in that Wizengamot meeting back in two thousand and six he never thought that they would then frame him for multiple counts of murder and put him in Azkaban for seven years, along with those that were closely related to any Death Eaters regardless of if they were involved in any way or not.
"It... It was the only way Harry... I made everything better. Ron just wanted something to fight and take his anger out on after Fred died, so he became Odin used his ability to create strategies to lead an army. We never loved each other but I... I just wanted to be respected to make a difference and... and we did we changed the world... united it all under one banner." letting out a long sigh that turned into a cough, she was quickly beginning to realise that she was about to die and there was nothing she could do about it. "What now Harry? The wards will collapse when I die... and everything I've worked for" she tried to spit the words at Harry but her rapidly draining strength made it hard to do so causing Harry to let out a small humourless chuckle.
"Now we dissappear Hermoine, all of magic, nothing good has come from magic in the last hundred years, thousands, millions of muggles have died because of us. All because of you I can do it, the Library of Blood makes it all possible" the shocked and inquisitive look from Hermoine made Harry continue although it made no difference telling her or not, he thought it might be a bit too cruel to deny her any knowledge she craved so much as she died. "The ritual I made will take any blood spilt within it and drain the magic from the person when activated, it's why there's no blood on the floor despite how many people have died here. So your blood collection is every magical person in the world, and it will take all their magic, maybe killing them as it does so." letting out a deep sigh Harry continued "But it's for the greater good as you put it to remove us from Earth to let muggles have it and carry on without our influence, it's time for us to go back to the myths and legends instead of overlords and pretend God" as Harry finished his speech the surprise still hadn't left Hermoine's face as she breathed her last breath. "Goodbye Hermoine."
With that Harry cast a wide range Homenum Revelio to see if there was anyone else left in the palace. After waiting a minute or to and not feeling anything back from the charm Harry began to stand and walk towards the throne. Looking around at all the bodies laying on the floor, Harry wished that it hadn't come to something like this but he truly believed this was for the best, magic was no good for the world any more.
"So I guess this is it then" Harry said out loud to the room full of the dead before taking out a silver dagger and cutting letting his blood fall onto the floor where it vanished instantly like all of the blood before it. Seeing no point in healing the wound Harry walked out of the throne room and deep into the palace down many stairs until he cam upon what he was looking for. An illusion of a wall placed over where an alcove should be, dispelling the illusion revealed a large egg shaped object similar to that of the golden egg Harry had during the tri-wizard tournament. However instead of being gold this egg was silver, goblin-wrought silver to be precise and it was covered in runes, placing his still bleeding hand over it and simply spoke "And so I become death, the destroyer of worlds." and no sooner had Harry finished the words he felt pain like he never had before. This was nothing like the cruciatus from Voldemort or any spell he was hit with while fighting this was something else, every cell in his body hurt, his bones hurt, to Harry it even felt like his soul hurt and that was the last thing Harry Potter felt before his vision was swarmed with a bright white light from ritual being activated and his world faded along with the pain.
Harry didn't know how long he had been out, all he knew is that all the pain he felt was gone and the room is was in was incredibly white, lifting his head up he could see that this place reminded him of somewhere he has been once before.
"Oh Merlin not this place again, I can't even die right" before slamming his head back against the floor. It was then Harry could hear chuckling from behind him "If that's you again Dumbledore then I'll... I'll... shave your beard off" Harry finished lamely, it had been over twenty years since he had last seen Dumbledore and never before had he really tried to threaten him before so he didn't know what would work against the old man.
"I'm afraid you'll be disappointed then Harry" the voice was much deeper than what Harry was expecting it managed to both scare him and relax him at the same time, an odd sensation that Harry wasn't sure he was comfortable with. "you did die by the way, if it's any consolation, so you did manage to get that right. I just decided that I wanted to... intervene a little." The odd voice and words which it spoke caused Harry to quickly get up and look at the man that brought him here. The man was nothing special, he was of average height and build, combed back brown hair and was wearing a deep blue pinstripe suit while carrying a jet black cane with a skull on top.
"And just who are you then?" asked Harry, after being told by this stranger that he was dead yet he managed to bring him here meant that in all likely hood this guy was powerful beyond belief if he could just call souls on what appears to be a whim.
"Well I'm surprised you don't recognise me, at least the magic around me should feel familiar to you" the man said with a smirk clearly enjoying playing with Harry, who decided to entertain the man and feel out with his magic sense to see if what the man said was true. That's when Harry froze he knew this feeling, his eyes starting to go wide as he looked at the man in front of him "I see you've figured it out then." the man's eyes sparkling with mirth as his smirk grew larger "Allow me to introduce myself then to clear things up. I am Death" finishing with a bow and miming taking his hat off to Harry who just continued to stand there eyes wide and mouth agape as he looked towards this man who was the literal embodiment of death and was acting like this was completely normal and something you do on a regular basis just die, and talk to death like an old friend.
"Why did you bring me here?" Harry asked upon regaining his senses.
"Well you see you can't just go around and kill every magical person on Earth in my name and just expect nothing more to happen from it can you. Really you humans no concept of the greater picture, honestly." Harry wasn't sure how you could respond to a man like this, he's the literal embodiment of death yet was probably one of the most cheerful people Harry had ever met. Like who can just mention the death of hundreds of thousands if not millions with a smile on their face like it's a normal occurrence for a Thursday.
"Wait... what do you mean in your name?" Harry asked suddenly realising what it was that... Death had just said to him. Upon hearing the question Death just looked at him like he was stupid.
"Really? Does 'Now I become death' ring any bells. You literally said you were being mean when killing all those people, so therefore and henceforth you killed all those people in my name" Death said still smiling at Harry, although the smirk had left Harry wasn't sure if he preferred a smirking or smiling death, both just seemed strange to him but hey he's talking to death so what right does he have to talk about strange.
"So what does that mean then? Is that another kind of ritual sacrifice I did or something like that?" inquired Harry unsure of where he was going with all of this.
"Well let me tell you a story Harry." Death paused with a sudden thoughtful expression on his face before asking "May I call you Harry?"
"Errrm... yer sure." Harry wasn't sure why Death was asking that he's death if he wanted to call him Tom he didn't think there was much he could really do about it.
"Then let me continue then Harry you see in the world, you just so thoughtfully removed all magical humans from, in twenty years some witch would have got her hands on some atomic weapons and engineered them to work with magic." Harry was dumbstruck at this revelation, he knew from being a muggle-raised what atomic weapons were and how destructive they are, he couldn't imagine what would happen if magic would be mixed with them as well. "Now you see this didn't end well as these bombs were used and wiped out all life and magic on earth. You might think loads of death that must keep Death busy... well you would be wrong, you see I'm linked to the magic in the Earth no magic no me, can't say I'm looking forward to that so here we are you kill millions of magical humans yet still allow magic to exist and thus me to exist." Death began to lean over towards Harry looking around as if to see if there is anyone that could be over hearing them "And even better, since you did it in my name the other guys think I was involved somehow and now all love me. So I thought I should reward you somehow." This was all to much for Harry other guys like death?
"How did you know that's what would happen? After all I did this ritual and that's what happened nothing else"
"Ah well you see the Fates aren't perfect, these some people that are picked by some other power or some such that can change the fate of everyone else. They become this red thread that just makes a mess of what they do with all the others, they really hate it but there's not much they can do about it" Death finished with a smile like he enjoyed the plight of the Fates. "That's where you come in you're a red thread and can change everything, so when the Fates couldn't get any more thread to go beyond this date they looked into and found about the bombs and for the first time in forever the wanted a red thread to make a mess of everything so we don't all die or whatever happens to us" Harry was more confused now, every time Death explained something Harry just wanted to ask more questions about it, but there was one thing that really caught Harry's attention
"What do you mean other power? I thought you being death would be the higher power" asked Harry
"Well compared to you we are but then there's got to be some guys that manage us and maybe some that manage them. It's only due to you being a red string and doing a massive ritual in my name that gives me the power to be able to talk to you, same could perhaps be said about us to our higher powers, but I digress." Death clapped his hands together looking towards Harry with an excited grin on his face. "How would you Mr Potter like to enjoy a once in a life time trip to another life?" Harry's mouth was once again agape as he stared at death.
"What?" Harry really couldn't help but sound dumb here, or did Death really just offer him another chance to live. Death chuckled at Harry's response.
"Eloquent as ever Mr Potter, I'm giving you a change to go live another live in a world very similar to yours but not quite and all you have to do is promise to save the world there too, simple stuff really." Death cheerfully explained to Harry.
"What's different about this other world? And what do I need to do?" Harry couldn't believe it another chance at life would allow him to maybe have everything he always wanted, he could have a family, friends he could trust and all he had to do was save this world and stop it becoming like his world.
"Well Hogwarts starts at 13 but that's about it, they way it ends is a little different but same outcome and method just a different journey to it." Death began to ponder trying to remember everything about this world that caused it to be on a path to collapse "Dumbledore didn't die in this world and trains Hermoine to be a ruler much like the Magical Federation with the idea of 'For the Greater Good', you die in Azkaban and the world die with magical bombs so its ninety percent or so the same just a few tweaks. Now the earliest you could go back is the thirty first of October nineteen ninety-six, so your fourth year in this timeline and the day your name gets drawn from the goblet of fire, not much we can do about that." at this point Harry interrupts.
"I'll do it" Death just looks at Harry, although he expected this answer he didn't really expect Harry to agree so quickly.
"Are you sure? It will be two more years of torture for you at the Dursley's before you get your escape, although they will be memories you'll still feel it" Death explained to Harry although he wanted him to do it he couldn't force him and in the end it's up to him if he wanted to let this new world burn there's not much any of them could do about it.
"Yes, never been more sure, a chance to have everything I couldn't before is more than enough and a little bit more fighting doesn't matter if it gives a better outcome for me" Harry replied, he wasn't going to give up this chance.
"Very well then, I'll make some changes to you to make it easier for you. I'll lock all your current memories behind an occlumency shield that no one could break through so your new memories will be at the front of your mind to prevent any mistakes. Your new body will be turned into its' optimal health although you should apply a glamour as the change would appear sudden and finally you will need to relearn all your skills, your mind will know them but your body and magic wont. Oh and speaking of your magic you'll be weaker the you were before you died but much stronger than you were at sixteen. Okay?"
"More than okay" Harry was more than eager to get to this new world, stop it destroying itself and get a new family.
"You will also be my champion in the new world too" Death added on before sending Harry off.
"What does that mean?" Harry wasn't sure about this part, if it meant having to do more killing of millions of people he wasn't sure he was up to that task on a regular basis.
"Simply put you get some extra powers nothing major, which you have to discover yourself as I'm not allowed to tell you about them. You also get a mark that shows you have been marked by mean although I doubt many people will recognise it after all has been awhile since I marked someone, I think a Peverell or something may have been the last." said Death becoming lost in thought about who he last marked after that stupid bet with Fate that eventually led to the creation of the Deathly Hallows "Ah yes and you'll feel a greater connection to the Deathly Hallows when you regain those"
"Right then, so what now" Harry stated wondering if there was anything left for death to tell him.
"This will hurt" Death said as he raised his cane and tapped Harry on the head. Again Harry felt like his body was being ripped apart every cell, every bone hurt his very soul hurt before the world faded away again.