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A/N: And here is the very last chapter of HPaDI, its been a fun ride, folks! Keep a sharp eye out for the next in the newly dubbed Incarnate series!
Harry Potter and Death's Incarnate
"Screams! Tears, death and decay, so glorious and at the same time, so ugly. It makes me sick and now I'm sick of myself. The same damn thing...I can see it, you know. See myself cut loose and just drift down my own River to Judgment where I'll never have to bother with any of this shit ever again. Why is it always the same? Ha, Always...did that count as a joke? No? Well, it damn well doesn't make sense! Always is change, Never is not so then why is the universe trapped in this cycle? I die, the next Incarnate will just carry it on forever afterwards. Hell, I can't even die without a Chosen because I'm Death! Never changing, it shouldn't be this way. Is the Weave doing this to us? Do we really have so little choice? No, I can change Everything, I know how, I can do it but...should I? Yin, you're like a mother to me, to all of us, I need you to tell me...I need you to tell me that what I'm planning to do is wrong! If I destroy Everything, bring about the End before it's Time...will you hate me? Please...don't lie..." - Incarnate of Death, Thanatos
"Huh..." Harry couldn't stop his mouth from dropping into a small 'o' as he tilted his head to the right. "You really did have a manor..."
The term "manor" was a very modest one, the place looked closer to a castle than anything else. The deep black stone it was made of seemed to absorb all light that hit it, glowing with an inner fire that raised the hair on the back of the boy's neck. Tall turrents were more square than round, complete with hard edges and pointed tips, the moat was more like a swamp and the "front door" was a rusty porticlus. As far as Harry could tell, the only reason it got away with being called a manor was the fact that the drawbridge couldn't be raised.
Thana swept past him, waving a nonchalant hand in the air. "More like your cousin's manor, you didn't think I impersonated someone who didn't exist, did you?" she asked airily. Surprised, he quickly grabbed hold of his trunk and jogged a bit to catch up to her longer strides.
"You mean I really did have family here?"
"Hmmm, yes," she placed a hand on the door before pausing thoughtfully. "And had they been allowed to raise you, they might have still existed." And just like that, Harry's mood darkened as she pushed the door open.
--Dumbledore's a bastard-- a whisper said helpfully from within Harry's mind once he crossed the door threshhold.
We said it. Harry roughly shook his head. You said it, you...Y.O.U...I need to stop talking to myself. He could have sworn the other voice laughed.
"Now, for the first order of business..." Thana's voice echoed down one of the hallways. Harry dumped his floating, black trunk just off to the side of the large, double sided front door and took an astonished look around. The Dursleys were a proud upper middle class family, with their three bedroom, two bathroom house on Privet Drive. This place though, looked as if it belonged to someone who had money up the wazoo. Rich dark woods lined the walls, alternating between an almost black and a deep red. The floor had plush carpet that had Harry almost itching to take off his shoes and run around. Chandeliers, glass cases that housed ceremonial armor, everywhere he looked there was some evidence of money well spent.
His gaping came to an abrupt end when he was smacked upside the head.
"Ow! What the hell was that for!?" Thana just raised an eyebrow at him. --We weren't paying attention to single thing she was saying-- And...caught. A sheepish smile crept across his face. "Um, oops?"
She turned up her nose. "Oops?" she said derisively. "Well, I guess you don't want to see what I found here about your parents..."
Emerald eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "Really? You found something?" Thana turned on her heel and made her way back down the hallway she was in earlier, this time with Harry practically melding with her shadow.
"It's more of a someone..." It was a painting, of a woman with dark waves of hair and pale hazel eyes, a heart shaped face, button nose and her plaque read: Constanze Magdeline Ergusson, loving daughter 1963-1981. Harry let out a gasp and the portrait did the same.
"James!?" The boy blinked. Her voice was light and snooty sounding. "No, you are far too young...not to mention the wrong colour of eyes..." The real Constanze turned to Thana who had a self satisfied air about her. "Is he...?"
"Oh, yes."
"Hello!" Harry blurted out, annoyed. "I'm right here!" Both women just looked at him until he turned red.
"No..." Thana drawled. "You don't say..." Harry opened his mouth for a retort but she cut him off. "Anyway, boy, this is Constanze, your father's ex-fiancee." His mouth dropped open further. "Constanze, this is James' and Lily's son Harry."
The painting curtsied politely, albeit a bit stiffly. "Pleased to meet you, finally." Harry couldn't get the words out and just stood there, gaping. Ex-fiancee...Dad was going to marry someone else?
--You can't say it hasn't happened before--
Well, yeah, but I couldn't...not really, well you see...not to my parents!
Thana clapped her hands together, about to say something, when she froze. Both boy and painting raised an eyebrow at her strange behavior, her hands still in the air mid clap. Harry couldn't really explain, even to himself, what happened next but it was almost as if Thana...shifted. Change in posture, attitude or something but one moment she was as infuriating as always and the next, even though he could reach out and tag her, she seemed so very far away.
Her eyes flashed gold. "The wards," she murmured quietly and gave Harry an unreadable look. "We have company."
Harry gave his bravest smile. "Friends of yours?"
And there was that smirk of hers again. "Why don't we go see?"
It most definitely was not a friend.
"Pal." Thana and Harry snarled at once and Life Incarnate just gave them a superior smirk.
"Pleased to see me?" Palquenta was seated on air as if she was in a high backed seat with her legs crossed daintily. The only thing that didn't fit into the picture of angelic delicacy was the strange sword laid across her lap. It had a gleaming silver sheath that was lined with little thorn ridges. The crossguard was a circular ring of petals and if Harry had thought about it, it kind of looked like a rose.
"Your Artifact won't kill me," Thana sneered. "And I'll kill you if the boy gets even a scratch." Harry teetered a bit. That was almost...nice to hear from her. But it also scared him. Not a scratch? Kill...for a scratch?
Pal's smirk just got wider. "I'm here to give it to him, actually, a challenge of sorts."
"We won't play your games, Pal."
"Nuh uh uh!" Pal wiggled an index finger at Thana playfully. "I'm afraid he has no choice, it's Always-sanctioned. He will play."
Alright, ran through Harry's mind. That's it, I'm already sick of this. "Would someone please tell me what the bloody hell is going on!?"
"Palquenta's challenging your immortality," Thana spat out the side of her mouth, blue eyes dangerously flickering between gold and white. "You win, you keep it. You lose, Death gets you." Harry paled, knowing how that felt. "Shit like this is why we usually don't allow immortals...The terms are, Pal?"
Pal lifted the sword, holding it out flat on her palms as if she was ceremoniously giving it to someone, smiling wickedly. "The Rose, a sword that always hungers for a chance to save a life, my challenge for one Harry J. Potter is thus: No matter what happens at Hogwarts next year, you will not draw it." Harry hissed in anger, knowing what she was going to say next. "With the power to save everyone, you'll have to stand by and watch." With a quick movement, she drove the sheathed sword into the ground. She then vanished, her voice still on the wind. "I'd wish you good luck but..."
Leaving the Rose still standing proudly out of the ground.
--No matter what...wanna bet she'll make something happen?--
You can't pay up.
A mental silence as Thana began cursing up a blue streak, angrier than he'd ever seen her. "That bitch! Stupid ass whore, why the fucking hell would she...argh! Why does she have to get in the fucking way of everything!?"
--We hate her, don't we?--
We do.
With a heavy sigh, Harry turned back around to the manor and opened the door.
FIN
Pretty soon, Harry Potter and the Breath of Life will be up. More plotting, more questions, some answers and Palquenta's personal quest to make both Harry and Thana's existence hell.