Chapter Two – Rebirth

Dawn broke slowly over the forest. The weak sunlight crawled over the tree-tops and cast its feeble light over the tent. The tent was now visible to all, the charms cast over the area broken due to the death of the casters; however the forest was silent and empty. Not a living soul was present to witness the horror that lay within the canvas. Within the confines of the dwelling, the two bodies lay, unmoving. The tent was covered in the blood of Hermione, evident of the pressure she was under when her throat was cut. On the floor was a large pool of dried and blackened blood, a mixture of hers and his, enveloping the bodies like an evil halo. Both teens' eyes were wide and open but unseeing, Harry's once glorious green eyes now turning a milky white. Hermione's eyes had also taken on a milky hue, and her face was covered in her blood, now turning black. The gaping wound on her throat open and now drained. Both teens were a white-blue colour from loss of blood.

For a long while all was still, the only sound was that of the birds in the tree-tops unaware of the tragedy below.

As the sun slowly began its never ending journey across the sky, a bright light began to build within the tent. This grew brighter and brighter and slowly began to take the shape of an old man. Once whole, the light dimmed until only a soft glow surrounded the figure. The being looked around the room with a sad expression on its face.

"No, this is not right. This will not do at all!" he muttered to himself. This creature of light had no real name, but over the eons he had taken human form many times and walked amongst the populace as one of them. He had taken on many names in many different planes of reality. In one plane, he had been known as Gandalf the Grey, then White before moving on. In another he still operated at Belgarath, the Eternal man. In this particular plane of existence he had taken many names over the centuries. He was once known as Merlin, and then Godric Griffindor. He chucked as he remembered he once took the name of 'no one', a joke played upon him earning him the name Nevyn. His most recent form was that of the Headmaster of a magical school. He had enjoyed that one, but the Gods of Time, had decided that it was time for him to move on and he had left this existence. However he had been summoned back by the Gods, because time had been ripped. A grave injury had been cast upon what was meant to be, and as the universe champion he had been sent to sort it out. This had always been his role, sorting out the mess that the Gods allowed to happen, but couldn't be bothered to sort out themselves.

As he thought about the countless centuries that he had existed he wracked his brains for a solution to the problem that lay before him. These two shouldn't have died, at least not yet. They still had work to do but because of the work of the Dark one, that had all been ripped apart. Time was now injured, the ends of the continuum flaying around, broken. The creature of light knew that he could not just bring them back. Even if the Angel of Death was to release their souls, their bodies were still broken. They would die the instant they were re-born. No he had to come up with a cleverer solution than that. He searched through all the planes and dimensions that he had encountered, looking for a solution that would appease the Gods, and the Angel of Death. The Angel would not give up the two souls without a price, that was the way of things, and that was the way it should be. However there was always room for negation. The Angel liked a good bargain as much as any other of the entities did; the Angel was always fair but traded hard. He knew that he would have to come up with something that could entice the Angel into releasing the souls back to him and still keep the old coot happy.

As he trawled though his memories of the dimensions he had travelled to, he came across one minor plane. He had never existed in a corporal state in that one, but he remembered an interesting fact about it. He had come across a group of humans that had somehow become immortal. No one knew quite how this had come about, but the only way to kill one of them was to remove their head. They seemed to spend a large amount of time searching for one another and fighting with swords until one was victorious. They claimed they were doing this until only one was left and they could claim some mysterious prize. If questioned none of them knew what the prize was or what it would do to them but they seemed more than happy to maintain the fight. As he looked deeper he realized that the price of the immortality came with a curse, they were all infertile. This could be a problem but was also a solution. He found a pair of old immortals that against all the odds had fallen in love with one another. They were tired of the Game, and wanted nothing more than to have children and grow old with each other before dying together. This had potential, sure the infertility thing could be a problem, but there would be ways around that. He was not above cheating on occasion to achieve his goals. Without a second thought, part of his existence vanished only to reappear in the plane that these immortals existed. He wasn't going to force the change on anyone; that was not the way he worked. He sought out the pair, and explained everything to them. Very quickly they agreed to give up there immortality in order to have a normal mortal existence. Smiling he drew out there immortal essence and returned to the tent. Even thought this had taken days to achieve in the other plane, in this one no time had passed.

He was pleased with himself. This would solve all of the problems he faced. The Angel of Death would be getting two old and wise souls at the end of their days, along with the promise of more souls due to their ability to now have children. The pair in front of him would be more powerful than ever before due to their new immortality, everyone wins.

He took out the immortal essence that he carried and looked deep into the glowing ball on his palm. As he gazed he found the infertility curse and removed it. Satisfied with his work, he split the ball in two and blew on his palm. The two glowing balls slowly flew across the room, and each infused the pair of corpses in front of him. Off course nothing would happen yet, these things took time, and off course souls. After a quick negation with the Angel two glowing masses of light descended from…somewhere. They were both intertwined but eventually broke apart and gently landed on the bodies. Happy that things were now back on track, he was about to leave when two thoughts occurred to him. These two when they revived would need explanations and more knowledge. The former was easy enough, but the latter required some more cheating on his part. Checking that none of the Gods were looking, he put his hand to his head and withdrew some raw knowledge. He stood and examined the silver liquid in his hands.

"No, not that bit, too powerful….yes…and that bit…defiantly not that bit…..oh that will do."

He threw the liquid at the pair and watched with satisfaction as it seemed into them. Now for the explanations. He summoned his familiar from his last existence and watched as the golden phoenix flashed into being. The bird flew around the room and came to rest on one of the trunks in the room.

"Hello my old friend. I'm sorry for leaving you, but I have a new task for you. I need you to bond with these two and when they revive, explain a few things too them. Not everything, where would the fun be in that but enough so they don't go insane. You will need to tell them of their tasks, both the old one and the new one. It won't be easy for them but they have the power to complete it. Are you happy to do this for me?"

The bird sung its acceptance and bobbed its head at the glowing figure.

"Well now that that's done, I must be leaving. I will not be back in this plane for many centuries. Good luck my friend" and turning to the still corpses, "And good luck to you two."

With a sharp 'pop' he was gone, leaving the tent empty other than the phoenix and the two bodies. Fawkes silently stood vigil over his new charges, awaiting the re-birth that he knew was imminent.

As time passed nothing changed within the tent. A passing fox, alerted by the smell of fresh meat paid a visit but was soon seen off by the phoenix.

After an hour or so, finally something began to happen; slowly the wound on Hermione's neck silently sealed itself, the wound in Harry's chest also closed up. Both sets of eye's lost the milky-ness to them, returning to emerald green and chocolate brown. Without warning both teens suddenly took in a long breath and sat up. Hermione screamed in terror and Harry cried out in pain. Both looked around in total confusion. Harry crawled to his knees and vomited all over the floor. Hermione was fairing little better as she grasped at her throat, unaware that the wound had healed itself. She was opening and closing her mouth trying to form words but failing. Harry meanwhile had emptied his stomach, but was still dry heaving. He looked around and saw Hermione silently crying and he forced him stomach to calm and moved slowly over to her on his knees and embraced her. She clung to him like a dying child, her tears hot on his cold naked body.

Finally Hermione found her voice, although it was dry and raspy

"Harry, I died! I felt myself die. I couldn't stop him from hurting you and I felt myself die. I felt him slice my neck but its whole again."

"I know, I saw you dead in my arms and then I felt myself die as well. What the hell happened?"

"Ron! How could he do that to us?"

"I don't think that was Ron 'Mione. I'm not sure what it was but it wasn't the Ron we know."

Hermione started to cry again and Harry held her tighter, both unaware of their nakedness.

As they held each other, naked, cold and covered in each other's dry blood a voice spoke in their heads.

"Keep calm please, all will be explained to you."

The two young lovers whipped their heads around and spotted the phoenix sat on Harry's trunk.

"Fawkes? Is that you? How are you speaking to us?"

"Yes it is me, and I am able to speak to you both because I have been asked to bond with you both. I will try to explain everything, but before I do so you may wish to wash and dress. You both have had a traumatic time but you will feel better soon."

At this Harry and Hermione looked at one another and realised what the phoenix was referring to. Both were covered in dry black blood and Hermione's hair was stiff with it. Harry had lost his glasses and his face was smeared with her blood from where he held her. They both staggered to their feet and moved slowly to the shower. They took a long time to wash each other, taking it in turns to clean of the blood and grime from each other's body. They took to enjoyment from the contact, only the need to be clean. After washing they eventually found some clean clothes that had been spared the blood splashes that cover the interior of the tent and finally decided to sit outside as they could not face the sight of the blood. Hermione had found Harry's glasses and repaired and cleaned them for him and they were both sat arm in arm facing the phoenix. Harry was holding his wand, now broken in two after he landed on it when the creature had thrown him across the room. They both looked very pale but the wash and clean clothes had made them look more human. Hermione's face was still stained with tears as she struggled to come to terms with what had befallen them.

As they sat, holding each other close the phoenix began to talk to them in their heads.

"Well as you two guessed, you both died yesterday. As far as I understand it the creature that you thought was Ron is a demon that feed of people's negative emotions- a physic Vampire if you like. It took over the body of your friend before he even met you, and had been manipulating you both into a situation where your love for each other would never be allowed to be. The pain you would both feel would have fed him for decades. However yesterday when Harry kissed you, you both changed all that. He decided to go for a quick fix and drank the emotions of your deaths."

Harry and Hermione looked at each other in amazement, "Do you mean that we really both died?" Harry asked.

"Oh yes, you were dead...very dead. That should have been it for you two, but the universe is a fickle mistress and you two were still needed to complete a few important tasks. It had to be you two and no one else. With you both dead, causality was damaged and something had to be done about it. That's why you were visited by someone."

"Who? And how come we are now alive?" Hermione whispered.

"Well the entity that visited you has no real name, but he is an eternal. That is a being of immense power that works for the Gods of Time. He has taken many forms over the eons, but the last one was that of my previous master."

"Dumbledore!" Harry breathed.

"Yes, although it's best not to think of him as that. He is much more than that one man. Anyway he needed to find a way to bring you back and to keep the Angel of Death happy. He does not like to be cheated out of souls. Anyway the entity is able to move amongst the many planes of existence, dimensions like ours. He found a place where there are some humans that have achieved immortality. Two of them had grown tired of that existence and were prepared to give it up for a mortal life. He took their immortal essence and transferred it to you. As of now you are both immortal, you will grow no older, and nor will any spell or weapon kill you for the most part. You will still feel pain and suffering and can be killed if you lose your head, we are not sure about the killing curse, best to avoid it if possible. You have also been given a boost to your magical power and some useful knowledge, but you will have to learn how to use it. You now both share a life energy. What one knows the other knows; what one feels the other feels. If one of you is decapitated and dies so will the other. You are both linked together for now and all eternity. It's a good job you both like each other" he said with mental smile. "Any questions?"

The two young people sat open mouthed. Words were not possible, their brains ringing with the words they had heard.

"I take that 'as a not at the moment, but maybe later' sort of look. Call me when you need to speak more. I'll leave you both to come to terms with what you have been told." And with a flash the phoenix vanished, leaving two very shocked people behind.