Nineteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts and Harry Potter has not changed much. For a while, he thought he could finally get a normal life. But then, he started to notice some odd things about himself. While everyone around him seemed to get older, Harry remained the same. While Mr. and Mrs. Weasley started getting a head full of grey hair, and his two best friends started showing the first signs of wrinkles on their face, Harry looked like he was fresh in his twenties.
People had started to ask him how he retained his youthful appearances, he would jokingly say "perks of defeating a Dark Lord." In truth, he thinks the joke might be closer to fact than people realize. He is afraid that now he is the master of death, he can no longer die. If that were the case, then Harry would have to solve that problem soon. He did not want to watch is friends age in front of him while he went on to live forever. Immortality was not something he had ever wanted.
After the Battle of Hogwarts, he quickly got a job in the ministry as an auror and hunted down what remains of the Death Eaters so that the public could sleep safe at night. Most of the time, Harry went on missions alone. His need to save people has made him believe that if he had a partner, they would only end up getting hurt. "It's just safer this way," he would tell his friends. "The only person who is getting hurt is me."
They didn't agree with him, but they were in no position to stop him either.
Ginny Weasley became his girlfriend soon after all the hype died down and the Weasley family could not have been happier. They all eagerly await the day that the two of them announce their engagement. "It's been seven years, darling, when are we going to make you an official Weasley?" Molly would ask. Harry wouldn't give her an answer.
Ginny would get onto him for being so reckless with his own safety whenever he came home hurt form a mission. "If you want to feel a little danger in your life again, come flying with me some time. I'm sure that no one would mind if you played a game of professional Quidditch every now and again. What do you say? I'll even charm the bludgers to hit you extra hard."
But, that was not the kind of danger that Harry was looking for. It was too safe, and he wasn't saving anyone's life by getting on a broom and playing Quidditch. "Sorry, Ginny. Maybe some other time. Thanks for the offer."
He loved Ginny, he really did. But sometimes, he felt as if she was missing something he needed. His life now was exactly as he wanted it to be when he was in school, minus some key people who had died during the war. Other than that, it was perfect. At least, he wanted it to feel that way.
It wasn't just Ginny that was missing something, it was his entire life. He felt as though he was incomplete without the danger of a Dark Lord lurking around his thoughts, or some plot that was designed to kill him waiting to unleash itself at the end of the year. His job as an auror was the only thing that was keeping him sane. The thrill of hunting down and capturing another dangerous criminal was the only thing that kept him from feeling restless and helped him sleep at night.
Ginny could sense there was something missing between them as well, but didn't pressure Harry into talking about it. She knew that something had changed in him after the war, it would have been foolish of her not to think that. Still, she held onto the hope that she could help him. All she wanted was for him to be safe. She did not want to have to see someone bring him home to her dead again.
Eventually, she had enough. She wasn't going to wait around forever for him to figure out what it is that he wanted. Although the few months after their breakup had been messy, they once again became good friends. Harry would even help set her up on dates whenever she asked. Ms. Weasley was disappointed, but she still treated Harry as one of her own.
Currently, Harry sat at his desk in the auror offices. Papers stacked on his desk untouched and probably wouldn't even be looked at until someone forces him to. In his hands was a book about vampires. Lately, there had been an outbreak of them around the area, and he was put on the case to track down whoever it was that was turning them.
The popular theory was that it was a follower of Voldemort's that had decided to do a last effort in getting revenge against the wizarding world. Almost twenty years later and there were still followers who wish to cause chaos in his name. The muggles he was turning took no caution in hiding their true nature and it raised alarms. Muggles from all over where questioning whether or not the attacks were some kind of insane serial killer or if vampires were actually real.
So far, it was all just a review of what he already knew but he was hoping that it would help him out and him some inspiration as to where to keep looking. They couldn't go out in the sunlight or they would eventually burn to death, they couldn't enter a house uninvited, and they needed blood to survive. Their strength, and senses were far superior than a human could ever hope to achieve, something Harry would have to deal with once he faced one alone.
The only way he would be able to get any information right now, would be to head into Knockturn Ally under a disguise and see if he can't get any information out of someone there. It was a long shot, but he had nothing else to go on. He picked up his cloak and walked out of the offices, only stopping a moment to wave goodbye to one of his coworkers. They wouldn't think twice about where he was going, nor did they care. Harry Potter was not known within the Auror Department as being a chatty person.
It wasn't hard to find suspicious activity in Knockturn Ally. The whole street reeked of it, the hard part was finding the kind of suspicious activity he needed to help his case. He didn't have to wait long. Before he could even start properly searching, he saw the face of a man whom was known to be one of the last death eaters still avoiding capture. His name was Brandon Barton, a man who was known to have smuggled muggle children from their homes for the single purpose of entertainment for the more sadistic of Voldemort's followers. So, if there was one thing Brandon was good at, it was avoiding detection.
The old Harry would have chased after him instantly, not worried about the consequences. But as he watched the man, he began to question why he would be walking around in public undisguised. Instead, Harry followed him as best as he knew how. With his entire auror career plus his years at Hogwarts under his belt, Harry felt that sneaking around had become almost second nature to him. If Brandon did indeed spot him, then Harry would reluctantly be impressed with the man.
Brandon walked down the street and into a grimy looking pub. The sign above the entrance was so dirty that Harry couldn't even tell what it was called. He was pretty sure that he had never even seen the pub there before either, and he has had to come onto the ally several hundred times for all sorts of cases.
Harry was reluctant to follow inside; the mysterious pub was an easy place to lure someone like him into a trap. But, he was also reluctant to involve anyone else in the case. His fear of someone else getting hurt while working with him was too strong for him to go back and get back up.
Still, he didn't want the chance of letting the man get away. He hasn't been spotted by anyone in the public in years, and what are the chances that Harry would ever find him again? Cautiously, Harry opened the door and stepped inside the grimy looking pub. The building looked completely different inside than it did from the outside. Flashing lights shown on the large dance floor, loud music seemed to shake the building, and people of all kinds dance on one another that would have made any unprepared observer blush. It was clean, and inviting on the inside. Wards around the building must have prevented the noise from the pub from the building from being heard on the street, and stopped anyone like him from seeing what was really on the inside.
It was overcrowded and that made it harder for Harry to spot his target. He maneuvered his way through and had to press himself up against several people whom he was sure smelled like they had been there since the night before. When he finally made his way to the middle of the room, he saw Brandon on the other end walking up a small set of stairs.
"Found you," he said to himself. It took even longer to follow Brandon up the stairs but when he did, the music disappeared as though it wasn't playing at all. Down the hall, one of the doors was left slightly ajar, and it was the first one he went to. He peeked inside but all he found was two women who were tangled up in each other.
"What the hell? Shut the damn door!" One on them shouted when they spotted him.
"Sorry," Harry replied embarrassed. He shut the door and took a step back. "Okay, not that one." He said to himself.
The next door, only held and empty room as did the next one. Finally, he came to the door at the very end of the hall and it tried to repel him as soon as his hand came close to the knob. He quickly dismantled the charm preventing him from getting close and mentally prepared himself for an attack.
At times like these, he understood why his friends gave him such a hard time about going on a case alone. There was not just one man inside the room, there were about twenty and they were all wearing death eater masks. "Shit," He said as they all realized the door was opened.
"I told you he would follow me," Brandon smirked. "Thought a little glamour would disguise himself from me? I've been at this game a lot longer than you boy. Grab him."
Harry was only able to fire off a few spells before they forced him into the room and took away his wand. He was shoved down onto the floor and one of the death eaters bound his hands together with a spell.
"The great Harry Potter is going to be taken down by the last of the Death Eaters? What a party this is. I only wish there could be more of an audience to see it." Brandon stepped closer to Harry until he was almost in his face. "Too bad. I guess we will just have to do."
"Is there cake? Please tell me there is cake. It's not much of a party without cake. Don't you people know anything about parties?" Harry rolled his eyes. "You aren't very scary you know. Maybe you should try a new look. I hear animatronics are all the rage in the muggle world these days."
Brandon punched Harry and he ended up falling sideways onto the floor. "You're nothing! You can't have beaten the dark lord! He is coming back and we are going to be here when he does," he snarled.
"That was almost twenty years ago, get over yourselves," Harry spat out a mouth full of blood. "He isn't waiting for you to give him a damn phone call."
The crucio that one of the death eaters cast at him threw him back onto the floor, screaming.
"No!" Brandon shouted and pulled the other death eater's hand down. "Any dark magic on him could disrupt the spell."
"Come off it, Barton. You're fucking half-blood arse couldn't even cast it if you even tried. Give me a chance later and I will give you a proper lesson." A gruff voice spat.
"Both of you stop it! Start the ritual now, and we can get this over with. The longer we wait, the more chance there is for something to go wrong," a woman's voice lectured.
"Don't worry. Something always goes wrong," Harry laughed, the blood coloring his teeth red. "Just give up and leave before someone else finds you all here."
Brandon glared at Harry but didn't say anything more. Instead, he pulled out a familiar looking piece of gold from his pocket.
"A time turner? You think a time turner is going to be able to help you? I can't go back more than twenty-four hours. You're going to all fail anyway," Harry snorted. "Death Eaters back in the day were something to be feared you know. Look at yourselves now. Bunch of morons holding onto an ideal that has proven nothing but the product of a failed society."
A few of the death eaters looked like they wanted to say something, or even attack him, but they all held their positions.
"You know more than anyone else that the ministry likes to hold on to their secrets. Especially ones as precious as this. You are going to be our little guide through time to help us find the exact moment when you murdered our master." Brandon explained as he twirled the time turner around his finger.
"Sure, and when I see him, I can offer him some of that cake you have here. I'm sure that he would love some. You know, since he is dead and all." Harry replied sarcastically. "Do dead people even like sweets or have their taste buds all rotted away?"
"Get this over with so that we can shut him up already," the woman spat at him. "No wonder the dark lord wanted him dead so bad."
"Aww, thank you," Harry mocked.
The death eaters circled around him and took out their wands. At the woman's lead, they all started chanting a spell that Harry did not recognize. The magic cracked in the air as Brandon started turning the time turner in his hands.
From what Harry could see, none of the death eaters looked like they had thought the plan through. What they didn't realize, was that after all the times Harry had gotten into sticky situations like this, he had to have learned to hold a few tricks up his sleeve.
One thing he had gotten particularly good at, was a wandless summoning charm. It was useful for all of the times, like this one, when his wand would get knocked out of his hand in battle. He could see it poking out of the woman's pocket. All he had to do was focus enough to retrieve it and he could destroy the time turner to put a permanent end to their spell.
None of the death eaters realized what had happened, by the time Harry had his hands free and his wand outstretched and casting a blasting curse at the time turner, it was too late. The time turner shattered into pieces and the static in the room continued to buzz. For a moment, no one dared move. If he could see beneath the death eater's masks, Harry would have seen identical looks of shock, disbelief, or horror on all of them.
Harry was prepared to fight them all if he had to, knowing that he might lose. He thought that at least now, there was no plan left for them to bring back Voldemort. What he didn't prepare for, was the explosion. The static of magic in the air hissed and bubbled until the whole room caught fire.
He couldn't see or hear anything except the screams of pain from the death eaters and the roar of the fire. Desperately, he tried to get up and move but he found himself almost frozen in place. The heat burned through his clothes and his skin, making turn an angry red and then black.
The room seemed to have started spinning, and he could no longer hear anything besides the sounds of the flames eating away at the wood in the room. Faster and faster it spun until harry thought that the force of it would pull him apart.
"Well, at least now I'll be able to test my theory," he thought bitterly.
Finally, it stopped and Harry was thrown across the room and knocked out cold. The lifeless, burnt bodies of the last death eaters lay around him.
There was nothing. Not like when he was hit with the killing curse.
There was no train station, no light, and no Dumbledore waiting for him.
He could see nothing but darkness. He could feel nothing except the aching in his bones.
"I can't take you," a voice said from within the darkness. "I wish I could. I have tried many times, believe me. But I cannot. I cannot help you from my end, you will have to find some other way."
"Who are you," Harry asked. He could not see anything except the endless darkness that seemed to be all around him.
"I think you know," the voice said sadly.
"Death?" Harry asked and somehow he knew that he was right. "Why not? I broke your wand. I should not be the master of you anymore."
"That is merely a title made by humans obsessed with a few trinkets I made for a bet. No, I am afraid this is not my doing. I would never grant a human immortality. Be them the master of me or no," Death replied.
"But, I don't want to be immortal," Harry felt like he sounded like a child.
"I know. That is why I am going to heal you. You have never tried to run from me. Just like your ancestors, you have treated me with great respect. That is why I am going to heal you. But, that is all I can do. The rest is up to you."
Harry felt a coolness spread through him. The kind one might wish for after being outside too long on a hot summer day. It made him sigh with happiness and relief. "But why can't I die?" Harry asked.
"The rest is up to you. Good luck, Harry Potter." Was the only answer Harry received from Death before he opened his eyes and was greeted with a bright light.