Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Harry Potter Franchise or others I may make reference to in any respect. The following work is for others and my own enjoyment and is not intended to infringe on any registered copyrights or to make me any profit.
Author's Note: Let me warn you now: this is my first fic, so my writing skills aren't the best and the writing may become convoluted. It is a self-insertion fic, so if you don't care about this fic, I won't fault you for that. I will try not make myself into a Mary Sue, and the (possible) OCs are realistic characters. If you happen to see elements that look familiar and think you may have seen before, that's probably because you have, and I happen to remember the idea and thought it was interesting so I incorporate it. So, let this serve as a blanket disclaimer to those ideas, saying that I didn't come up with all these ideas, and don't claim ownership over them. Also, expect very, very sporadic updates for this. I only write this whenever I have too many ideas in my head to not put down paper. (Edited 29-5-17)
I woke slowly in a large white room, with a pounding headache. As one would expect after their own death, I was extremely disoriented. My last memories where of me driving home from work, and then the sight of a truck running a red light, barreling directly towards me, followed by a vague sense of pain and sadness. After that I woke up here.
When I sat up, I could see a large train belching steam into the station, both as white as everything else in sight. Unusually, I couldn't tell where the illumination of the space originated from, and that, combined combined with the fact of how immaculately clean this place was, served to unnerve me, if only slightly.
It was only then that was when I noticed the only other person in the station.
He was standing about 20 feet away, looking at the train with his hands clasped behind his back. He was tall, abnormally so, with aristocratic features and a pale complexion that made it seem like he hailed from a long line of kings and queens. He was thinner than the average person, but not quite sickly, but very close. He was wearing a black business suit with a blood red tie and seemed to ooze power, so that it almost had physical form as it gathered around him.
After staring at him for a moment, the only spot of differentiation in blank white station, he looked over at me, appearing to notice I was awake, and then began to walk over to me.
"Welcome, Mr. Jordan," the man said, once he was in front of me. He was even taller than I had first thought him, appearing to at least be eight feet tall. Now that this man was closer to me, I could clearly see his eyes. They were completely, utterly black. Blacker than anything that we humans had ever seen. 'Shark eyes ' was a good term for his eyes.
"Who are you?" I asked, rather calmly, surprising me.
"I think you already know who I am, but I will introduce myself anyway. I am Death, and I am here to offer you a choice," said the man, in a tone of voice that was not dissimilar of a kid being told he was about to get a new toy.
Due to how unbelievable the situation I found myself in was, it took me a second of staring blankly at him to process that statement. "A choice? What do you mean?" I asked curiously.
"I mean that you have two choices. Let us sit and discuss this," Death said, waving his towards two extremely comfortable-looking armchairs that I either hadn't noticed or hadn't been there a second ago (I suspected the latter). We sat, facing towards each other. Once we were both settled, I gestured for him to continue.
"You can do one of two things at the moment. Option A is to go on to the next great adventure. You see your grandfather again, and your other loved ones when they cross over," he patiently explained.
When I processed what he said, I shivered, fully realizing that A, I was well and truly dead and B that I was still conscious, which went against almost everything I believed about death.
"And option two?" I inquired.
"Now this is where things get," he waved his hand as he said this, "interesting," placing extra emphasis on the word. "What does this place remind you of?" he asked seemingly out of nowhere.
I looked around, observing the white walls and the large steam engine waiting for my departure. "The train station in Harry Potter."
"Ten points to Gryffindor!" his voice suddenly booming throughout the large space, startling me. "Correct, this place is very similar to the one from the Harry Potter series. Or, more accurately, that station is similar to this one. You see, there are many realities, all which I operate in, that contain every possible outcome of anything that could happen in any reality, and those realities can be further be split. As you can probably see, it quickly gets to the point where there is an effectively infinite number universes. The thing is, there is also a reality for anything that was imagined by anything anywhere, and these are also subject to the normal rules as well," he explained.
I commented,"That sounds a lot like the multiverse theory."
"That's basically what it is," he responded.
"Anyway, that takes me back around to Harry Potter. What I am offering is to send you to a universe where magic, Harry Potter, and the wizarding world exist. Your body will be reverted to eleven years of age. The universe I would send you to would be very close to the original books by Rowling. The divergence point is when you arrive, which will be on June 31st, 1991, Harry Potter's birthday. I will give you a sizable sum in both wizarding and muggle currencies to get you started. The wizarding money totals to 70,000 galleons. The total sum for the muggle currency is 100,000 British pounds. If you want more, you have to get it yourself. You will also be capable of magic, and will have the opportunity to go to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
I thought about that for a second, stunned. I get to do magic? "Okay, but where would I stay during the summer?" I asked.
"Oh yes, I almost forgot about that. I will provide you with a small apartment in London. It will be fully furnished, and have a pantry that never runs out of food and can keep things fresh indefinitely," he explained. "You'll be emancipated, so you will be able to live alone. The owners of the building won't question as to why you are absent 9 out of 12 months of the year, and will charge you full price for those three months and change you actually live in the apartment, and charge a reduced amount the rest of the year."
"That all sounds great, but what's the catch?" I asked rather nervously.
"Nothing," said Death.
"What?!" I yelled in surprise.
"There isn't a catch," he replied.
Still not quite believing it, but accepting it for the time being, I asked, "Why then?"
"See, when you are a god, an all-powerful being, it can get rather dull after a while. So sometimes I take a recently deceased person who I know will be amusing to watch and offer them a choice similar to this. I don't do often, so you are in the minority of beings, human or otherwise," Death said causally, as if talking about something as benign as the weather.
"So basically, I'm your entertainment?" I angrily accused.
Death's expression darkened. "Boy, be careful when you play with fire, you may get burned," he growled in a menacing tone, his voice echoing about the space in ways that sent shivers up my spine.
'This being is not a human, no matter his appearance. No, this isn't human, it isn't human. It is not a he, or even a she. No, this being is an it. I have to commit that to memory,' I thought to myself. Out loud I said, "Okay, I accept your offer."
"Excellent!" he said, clapping his hands together, pleasant once again. "It is time for you to be on your way now." And with that, snapped his fingers and I felt myself being consumed by a blinding flash of darkness.
Instead of waking up on the floor, this time I gained awareness in a large and comfy bed. I sat up and began inspect my surroundings. I was in a nice but basically appointed bedroom. On the night stand, next to my bed, sat several items. Firstly, there were several credit and debit cards, a large golden key, one of those flip up calendars, and a pair of glasses matching my prescription. Putting the glasses on, I looked at the calendar, it said it was the 1st of July, 1991.
Moving to get out of bed, I noted that I was wearing a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, the type of clothes I normally slept in. For a moment, I considered the idea of Death manually undressing and redressing me, before shoving that thought into the box in my mind marked "Do not open until the End of the World". It was way too full. I stood, stretching. I felt as if I had just had a horrible cramp, except throughout my entire body. Needless to say, it was rather painful.
Walking out of the bedroom, I entered what was most likely an office. There were several empty book cases built into the wall behind the large desk at which was a large, comfortable looking office chair. I walked over and sat down, confirming my earlier impression of it. I looked into the desk drawers to find a piece of paper and a pen. After I had retrieved those items, I placed them on the desk's surface and sat back in my chair.
"What I need," I murmured to myself, "is a game plan." I took the cap off the pen and wrote down several things I needed to do. "One, learn about British law, customs, and traditions (Both Magical and Muggle),"writing it down as I spoke. Coming from America, I didn't know much of how things worked in Britain, besides that the House of Lords was a very important governing body, the Queen still was in power, and that the muggle government was a Constitutional Monarchy. And they lived on tea. And strictly regulated their guns. Ok, maybe I'm not completely Brit illiterate (illBriterate?). But still, I needed to learn how the hell this place works.
"Two, get more money." I put this on the list not (just) because I wanted wealth for the sake of wealth, but I needed it so I would be able to afford things later in life after Hogwarts. Plus, I would need it to conduct some experiments later down the line.
"Three, learn more about magic in general." I had no idea about the basics of magic, the things every wizard-raised child learns at an early age, and I needed that information for me to feel confident in being able to learn it.
"And four, when applicable, begin studies into the possibility of technomancy." This was by far the most ambitious of all of the goals no my list, and it also required the most background knowledge, thus it last on the to-do list. But I knew that magic had many untapped applications in the realm of technology, especially with the Undetectable Extension charm. I could think of dozens of uses of the spell of the top of my head!
If I couldn't combine magic and technology directly, I would still figure out how to exploit the hell out of magic in other ways. Maybe I could use magic in the production process?
Anyway, that was my game plan for the moment. I may or may not interfere with the timeline (too drastically. Me being here had already altered the timeline. To what extent, I did not know), depends on if I'm bored that day or not. And with my plans, I wouldn't be unoccupied for a good long time.
With that, I got up and went to find the kitchen, praying that I could cook something without burning my flat down.