Harry couldn't open his eyes, it felt as if they were welded together permanently and his head felt as if it had been stomped on by a hippogriff.
"Harry?" a voice asked and the shock caused him to open his eyes before he immediately shut them from pain.
After a moment he slowly reopened his eyes and meet the stare of the last person he expected to see ever again. Deep brown eyes peered at him from between a head full of frizzy hair that could only belong to Hermione Granger. Harry stared shocked his mouth opened and closed mindlessly which brought a grin to her face and a slight giggle that he'd missed so much. He snapped his mouth shut and roughly pulled her to him and buried his face in her hair not able to believe he was with her again because he'd thought she was dead.
Dead, he suddenly remembered Ginny and Justin had cast the Killing curse at him and Luna they were dead. He sagged a little against Hermione, she sighed and stepped back putting her hands on his shoulders.
"Harry," she spoke and he brought his eyes to her face, she looked somber," I've been waiting so long to see you again, I missed you."
Tears welled up in her eyes but she held them back not wanting to cry, this was a happy moment, as happy as being dead could be anyway.
Harry shook his head though and lifelessly said," We're dead though, we failed, I failed." he finished sadly.
He couldn't believe that they had failed, him and Luna had put so much work into trying to stay hidden and free themselves but they had been under watch the whole time and didn't even notice.
Luna he thought, where was Luna.
His head shot up and dislodged Hermione's hands from his shoulder's and looked he around him for the first time noticing that they were at King's Cross station just like when he had died during the final battle, except there were a lot of people of standing around and looking at him and Hermione.
Stood to his left as happy as ever was Luna which made him release what little tension had been left in his body. She smiled toothily at him at complete Zen with the whole situation before he looked over her shoulder and meet the merry dark blue gaze of Susan Bones who waved a little when she noticed his staring. He waved back to before he realized it felt silly and lowered his hand.
Further left Harry caught the cool unforgiving purple eyes of Blaise Zabini and all he did was nod his head in acknowledgement before he looked away. So Harry moved on and meet the bright grey eyes of the slightly less familiar stare of Anthony Goldstein who awkwardly smiled before he pushed his left hand through his sandy blond hair not knowing what do and he to looked away like Blaise.
Harry turned his head away and eyed his left side where Seamus Finnigan stood. His arms were crossed and he just grinned while he weirdly flexed his nose and held eye contact with him. His light blue eyes were wide and so invasive that he felt uncomfortable, enough so to make him lightly clear his throat and turn his head back to Hermione who also just stared at him while he did the same.
"Well," he spoke unsure what was happening because last time he had been here was with Dumbledore and so he lamely said," hi."
Blaise snorted while Susan giggled, and Hermione just raised a single eyebrow at him as if she had expected something meaningful to come out of his mouth.
"Well now that were all here I think we can begin." said a rough deep voice which made them all spin around to find the source.
Behind them was a slightly pudgy man with perfectly coiffed black hair and he just stood there and smiled wildly at them with dark yellow eyes. He had on a tan warmly knit sweater with a red shirt collar that stuck out underneath and light grey sweat pants with only socks on to cover his feet.
They could do nothing but stare because how were they supposed to respond to this oddly dressed man that spoke to them at this moment in the realm of death, it wasn't like he was could kill them they were already dead.
"I had been hoping for a more startled reaction to be honest," he said with an American accent," either way allow me to introduce myself, I am Death and I am here to help my master, which is a one mister Harry J. Potter." he looked to Harry as he finished which made his eyes widen slightly.
"What?" asked Harry stupidly.
Hermione sighed," Honestly Harry did you not know you were the master of the three Deathly Hallows?" all he did was stare at her," I tried to tell you when you left the wand in Dumbledore's grave, once you had all of the Hallows you became Death's master and just moving it away from you did nothing to stop that, they are always at your call."
That couldn't have possibly been right Harry thought, but as soon as he thought that all of them appeared on his person, the cloak over his shoulders and the wand and stone in his hands.
Death hummed approving," A smart one right here, that right I'm here to stay and while I'm here you will have my help on all your endeavors, such as your plan to go back in time."
"You can send us back?" Harry asked feeling excitement begin to thrum through his body.
Death smiled," Of course, however there are some conditions I have to give before I may do so, because even though I'm, well death, I am not the only higher power here." he finished eyeing them all.
"What kind of conditions?" Luna asked and felt hope rise in her at just the thought, anything would be worth going back in time for.
"Well for one, you'd all be going back and would placed in your younger bodies," this startled most of them because why would he send them all back, but it did help them understand why they were all there with Harry.
"Second," Death continued while he stuck his hands in his pockets," I will link you all together in such a way that you can all work together to accomplish condition number three." He finished an excited gleam in his eyes.
"Wait," Blaise interrupted," Link us together how, and why send us all back?," he asked confused and for once showing something other than a blank cold face.
Death continued though as if he hadn't been interrupted," Your third condition is to take over the world and rule it in such a way that neither light magic nor dark magic is favored over the other and to look out for all the good in the world, I will give you a few minuets to decided." and he vanished in a puff of green and pink smoke.
Everyone immediately started to talk and tried to give their opinion on whether to go back or not when Hermione whistled and got everyone's attention.
"Thank you," she said as she smoothed down her shirt," Now let us all calm down and discuss the like adults, and then tally up who would like to go back or not." Hermione eyed them all as if daring them to say it wasn't a good idea.
Some of them looked away ashamed at the slight reprimand while everyone else just stared at her.
"Good," Hermione fidgeted slightly," now raise your hand if you'd like to go back fix the world?"
Susan, Luna, Seamus, and Harry immediately raised their hands in the air while Anthony eyed then like they were crazy children before he cautiously raised his own. Hermione raised hers and then they all peered over at Blaise who just gave them a pinched look that seemed so out of place on his dark handsome face.
"You are all insane." he stated as he crossed his arms over his chest and narrowed his eyes at them.
Seamus let out a loud mocking laugh," You can't honestly want to stay here and be dead when there's a chance to go back and make the world a place to live in again, to save everyone?"
"Maybe I like being dead?" Blaise said forcefully
Susan moved towards Blaise and stopped a foot away from him, her hands behind her back and she stared up at his face.
"Why don't you want to go back Blaise, I mean I know that it's calming here and we have nothing to worry about anymore, but that can't be the only reason," she forced him to look in her eyes by standing real close," you stood with all those fighting Grindelwald when he attacked Diagon Alley I saw you before I died so it can't be because you like or approve of the destruction." she finished softly keeping her eyes locked with Blaise.
Blaise closed his eyes and slowly took half a step back before he opened his eyes and looked at them all.
" Fine," he said," I want to go back and do this, but only if we all swear on our magic to do this as equals, no taking charge over everyone else unless required."
They immediately agreed and they all felt their magic swirl around them before it settled back down. Blaise's shoulder sagged slightly as he now knew he wouldn't get pushed around and left out of helping or be treated like a lap dog.
Death appeared then in the middle of the group in a show of pink and green smoke while he threw a single bright purple streamer in the air with a goofy smile on his face. They looked at him not understanding how Death could be like this, it was a contradiction to everything they'd ever learned about him.
He ignored their stares and clapped his hands together," Excellent, well lets get a move on then we don't have all day," he splayed his hands out in front of him and was about to send them back when he stopped as if remembering something ,"don't forget to relax and let lose once in a while, be a little nuts when going about taking over the world, because if you're not having fun once I a while your work can become sloppy."
Some of them raised their eyebrows then as they watched him bring his hands together hard sending a shockwave outward. When nothing immediately happened they shared confused looks before they all feel over in pain. It was as if their brains were being ripped from their bodies, and the last thing they heard before they all simultaneously passed our was Death's voice asking," Did I forget to mention that I would be giving all of you each others memories," and their worlds went dark.