TITLE: Beforewards
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter.
A/N: Don't forget to leave a review.
SUMMARY: At Kings Cross, Harry meets someone other than Dumbledore. That someone sends Harry back in time to change things. Can Harry, with his future knowledge and new mentor, change his future for good? Or will this time travel not have the desired effects?
CLARIFICATIONS:
'Merlin talking to Harry in his head'
'Harry talking to Merlin in his head'
CHAPTER: 19
Harry had escaped the cascade of people asking where he had been that Saturday on Sunday, getting Hermione to leave him alone only when he announced that he was going to the boys dorm to do homework, and once he had locked himself behind his curtains, sat cross-legged on his bed, he began to question Merlin about the Deathly Hallows and what exactly he had done when he had stolen Draco's wand from him in Malfoy Manor.
'Time travel is magic, Harry. To understand this concept, you need to grasp that idea.'
Harry rolled his eyes, 'Yes, I am aware of that.'
'I am not sure you are. Let me put it in perspective. Shut your eyes.'
'Why?' He asked, suspicious. The only times in his life he had been asked to close his eyes was when Dudley would pull his trousers down and sneak away without telling him so he would stand there, in only underwear before some poor adult had to tell him that his trousers were down and ask him where his parents were, or when Ron, Seamus and Dean would sneak Filsbury's Fizz-Busters into his treacle tart, before Hermione and Ginny would get them back out again and berate them, well, Hermione would berate, Ginny would look on, smiling smugly as Seamus asked how they had seen them do it.
'To understand a magical property, one needs to understand why magic itself runs the way it does. To tell another is impossible with only words, but with visuals I can show you.'
He frowned, but nodded once and gradually shut his eyes. Darkness overtook him and he took a deep breath in and out.
'This will be like meditating.'
'I don't meditate.'
'Well, that's another character fault I shall add to the list.'
'What do you mean "another"?'
'Lets begin.' Harry sighed and sat back onto his bed. In the darkness within his mind, a light appeared from far away, almost like being in a very long, dark tunnel and just being able to see the other side. 'Magic is an understanding between wielders and the Eternity's. Wielders are wizards and witches, squibs and magical creatures. Anything that contains even the slightest speck of magical blood and/or affinity. Some studies believe that even some muggles have a certain percentage of magical blood, and that when two muggles come together who both embody a high percentage, not enough to be a magical being, a muggleborn is created. The Eternity's are known as Love, Life, Thought, Time and Death.'
Five cords, not unlike the cords of magic that came out of the wands of Madam Bones and Marchbanks at his trial and wrapped around his wrists, slowly travelled out of the white light and moved in different directions. One was ruby, one was gold, one was navy, one was emerald and one was jet-black, darker than the darkness of his mind. He surmised that the ruby was love, the gold for life, the navy for thought, the emerald for time and the black for death.
'These are all subjects that the Unspeakable's in their Department's study, for want of understanding of magic. They are all intertwined. You cannot have one without the others.' The cords warped around each other, the gold and ruby melting into one another with ease, the emerald and navy wrapping around each other and the black twining around them all. 'You will notice that Death controls them all.' And Harry did notice that. Wherever the other colours moved, the darkness was always there, following and pulling them back together. 'Death hangs over all the living and the dead, the loved and the loving, the thoughtful and the thoughtless, the ones who conform to time. And the ones who don't. Death is always there. Inescapable.'
A crease appeared in Harry's brow, 'But the third brother in The Tale of the Three Brothers did it. He asked Death for a cloak of invisibility and he escaped Death as his brothes fell to him. Then he left his life, gifting the item to his son before 'parting this life as equals'.' His frown increased, 'And what do you mean the ones who don't conform to time? That me, right? What does it mean for me?'
'I am coming to it. Because Death is always around, skulking in the shadows, waiting his next move, he has many forms.' The dark cord morphed rapidly through different forms; animals with wings, four legged tigers, lions, cats, dogs, wolves, and then humans, and then creatures with wings and horns. 'When one reaches the afterlife, however they passed that way, they meet whoever Death has chosen to be.' Harry's breath caught in his throat. Someone had met him in the afterlife. And that someone was in his mind... 'I know what you are thinking, Harry. I am not Death, just a minion of his kingdom, as all of the dead are. Be you magical or muggle. But when you are received in his kingdom, you are told an age old tale of the one known as 'The Master of Death'. Death's Master is the only one who can truly be immortal. You cannot be in charge of Death, but you are immune to his strengths and he is weak to yours. He must serve his Master, for that is his purpose other than collecting souls who are ready to pass on, whether they think so or not. The first Master was the one you speak of, 'The First Brother', or, in terms of reality and not a storybook, Ignotus Peverell. Death's confidence in the human race soared after meeting his first Master. The man who could defeat Death's quest of collecting souls. In the story they 'parted life as equals', in reality they parted as Master and Servant. Two magical beings above the human race, destiny's intertwined. In return for his Master's deviousness and cleverness, Death made a vow to protect and serve his line. As each of his descendants were birthed, they were unknowingly born into the line of Death's Master's. In time, the knowledge of this passed, and Beedle the Bard wrote a story, depicting this, keeping it engrained in history forever. But, once the story existed, dark forces stormed the earth. Searching for the items dubbed as the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak. It became legend that if one wizard owned all three, he could rule over Death, control him. However, if a wizard had all three, they would be powerful, yes. Perhaps unstoppable to all but one; Death. They would not be the true Master of Death. Only a Peverell who has all three can truly be Death's Master. You have to be born into the bloodline and prove yourself to the Eternity himself, that you are worthy enough.
Time and the other Eternity's don't compare to Death. They have no control, nothing to defeat him with. So, when the Master of Death, the one being more powerful than him, travels through time, changes thought, love and life, there is nothing that the Eternity's can do to stop him. There has only ever been two Peverell's who have become Death's Master. You, Harrison James Potter, descendant of Ignotus Peverell, are the second. You are Death's Master.' The image in his mind contorted, the twines of light faded and all that stood there was an outline of the horned creature with wings stood next to a male with a cloak over his shoulders, a ring on his finger, a long wand in his hand and glowing green eyes. 'And it is your birth right, as it was your fathers before yours, to claim the wand, the stone and the cloak as yours. The Master of Death is the most powerful being on earth and in the afterlife.' Merlin appeared in the darkness and the other images faded away. He smiled mischievously, 'Welcome to history, Harrison Peverell."
The next morning, Monday, Neville was surprised to see that Harry, who had been such an early riser since coming back to school, wasn't up. He thought that maybe he had slept in as he had looked very worn out on the previous night, so he went to check on his friend. When he opened the curtain, he cried out and immediately ran to notify a Professor as Harry was lying on his bed, pale as a sheet and bleeding from the nose and ears.
A/N: Sorry this took so long, guys! I just couldn't think of how to move through the conversation about Master of Death. Hope you like it, sorry it's so short.
Don't forget to review! They help me gather my muse.