Disclaimer: I still don't own anything.
A/N: mild slash
Harry pushed into Death's office just a few weeks after his meeting with Snape, out of breath. "It took me forever to sneak away from Ron and Hermione," Harry gasped. He still hadn't told his friends anything more about Death than what he had at the welcoming feast. He loved his friends dearly, but didn't think they could handle his relationship with the actual embodiment of death.
"What's so urgent?" Death asked, pushing the papers he had been marking aside.
Harry collapsed into the chair in front of the desk. "Dumbledore asked me to meet him in the entry hall tonight and to, in his words, 'bring my invisibility cloak.' He says he's found another horcrux."
Death's face got dark and the shadows seemed to be wrapping themselves around him. "I know you don't want me to leave campus with him, but if he's found a horcrux, then I think it's worth it," Harry continued. "I don't know what you want to do about the hallows. You said it didn't really mean anything if he got them, right?"
"That's right, they don't belong to him. That doesn't mean I want him to have all three though," Death glowered.
"Well? Can I go? Do I take my cloak?" Harry asked, confused.
Death just looked at Harry for a minute, trying to decide something. He nodded and then snapped his fingers. On the desk appeared Harry's invisibility cloak, a ring, and what could only be Dumbledore's wand.
"What…?" Harry started, but Death just waved his hand over the items and they seemed to melt together until they shrunk into a small, completely black stone, with the etched symbol of a triangle bisected with a line and containing a circle. Death waved his hand one more time and the stone set itself into a silver ring with protection runes etched around the metal.
Death held the ring in the palm of his hand. "You, my love, are the true owner of the hallows," Death explained as he turned the ring over in his hand. "It took me a while to realize this as the implications of our relationship were beyond my understanding at the time. I'm not ready to take you from this world yet, and as much as you may say otherwise, I don't think you're ready to leave."
Death was encouraged when Harry didn't contradict him. He placed the ring on the table between them. "This is yours when you are ready for it," Death said motioning to the ring. "The ring contains the power of all three hallows to use as you will. However, it is also the final piece to our bond. When I made the hallows originally, Fate told me that I would encounter them once again when I found the one who would make me whole, my soulmate. She said that when I found that person, the hallows would belong to them and they would rule the underworld by my side. You will become like me if you put this on. You will be neither alive nor dead and able to cross the realms. That being said, if you decide you never want it, that you want to live to 150 and have 30 grandkids, I'll rejoice with you in your happiness, but I will miss you dearly. This is beyond just your idea of a marriage as it is even more binding, so you need to think about it, and please, at least wait until you're 17 so your mum won't try to kill me."
Harry grinned at him. "So…you are asking me to marry you?"
"That's what you got from all that?" Death laughed, but it was cut off as Harry walked around the desk and kissed him so deeply, he could feel it in his soul. Death waved his hand, locking and warding his office.
Harry's hands tangled in Death's long, black locks, pulling his hair from the ponytail. Death pulled the younger man into his lap and ran his hands under Harry's shirt and over the scarred back of his love. "I love you," Death whispered as Harry started kissing down his jawline and neck.
"I love you, too," Harry kissed him again, more urgently.
They lost themselves for a few minutes until Death finally collected himself enough to push Harry back some and breathe. "We have to wait, just a little longer. You have to have time to think…to decide. You're still young."
"I may be young, but I've never been a child," Harry said looking at the ring on the table. "I'll wait for now because you want me to, but it'll not be for long. I'll put that ring on and we'll finish what we started here in the near future…maybe not in that order," Harry looked Death's body over suggestively.
Death picked up the ring and conjured a silver chain he slid it on before putting it over Harry's head. "If you hold onto the ring and wish to be invisible, it'll work like your cloak. You will be able to turn whoever else you are touching invisible as well. Unfortunately, you won't be able to access the other hallows while it isn't on your finger since they weren't in your possession originally. Just don't put it on while you wish to remain as you are and part of the world of the living."
"Won't Dumbledore be missing his wand and ring?" Harry asked speculatively.
Death grinned as a plume of fire appeared in his office and Fawkes squawked irritated on the back of one of the chairs. "I'm assuming he's getting a bit annoying up there?" Death asked Fawkes who trilled in the affirmative. "He does have another wand right, his original maybe?" Fawkes again trilled the affirmative before flying to the top of a bookcase and settling down to sleep again.
"Well, sounds like you are still on for your trip tonight then," Death said to Harry, who was seated on his lap. "I would mention that you can't find your invisibility cloak. He can disillusion you if he really needs you invisible."
"You're letting me go?!" Harry smiled, giving Death another quick kiss.
"Keep the coin on you at all times," Death warned. "Call if anything happens. I might not be able to kill anyone, but I can protect you as you are my bonded."
"Well, almost bonded," Harry corrected with a suggestive wriggle of his eyebrows.
"Regardless, you are an exception to the rules," Death said, poking Harry in the gut.
"Urf," Harry grunted and then grinned, jumping off Death's lap. "I've always been an exception to the rules, Dis, you know that!"
Harry held onto his ring, turning himself invisible before leaving Death's office. He grinned at the convenience; it was much better than having to worry about if the cloak was covering him completely all the time. Upon exiting the door, Harry was almost bowled over by an angry Filch. Harry smirked as he heard the old caretaker's grumblings to Mrs. Norris. "Bloody old fool asking me to summon a bloody dark object knowing bloody well it can't be summoned…" was all Harry heard before they turned the corner. It seemed Dumbledore wasn't taking the loss of his wand and ring very well if he was resorting to asking Filch to use dark magic to find them.
A couple corridors away and Harry turned himself visible again. He regretted it as soon as he was spotted by an irritated potions professor. "10 points from Gryffindor!" Snape snarled at him.
"Why Professor?" Harry asked, knowing he really shouldn't be confused since Snape loved to take out any inconvenience on him.
"For breathing!" Snape exclaimed. Harry smiled though as he heard a grumbled "old coot lost his last marble…" It seemed that Snape hadn't escaped Dumbledore's wrath either. Harry vowed to himself to avoid every professor the rest of the day. He really didn't want to lose any more points for existing.
Harry met with an uncharacteristically irritated Dumbledore that evening who immediately asked where Harry's cloak was. "I can't seem to find it professor," Harry said innocently with surprised, wide eyes. "I really looked everywhere and even asked Ron and Hermione if they borrowed it. I can't imagine I've just lost it." Dumbledore's frown deepened, but he just pulled out an old wand made of ash and led Harry from the castle, grumbling under his breath.
Harry dipped the shell into the black water of the underground lake. "Just hold on, professor! I'm getting you water!"
Harry yelled and jumped back as a slimy, white hand of an inferi tried to grab his wrist. As the dead started to rise from the water, Harry pushed Dumbledore back down and grabbed the ferryman's coin from his pocket thinking of Death as much as he could, which wasn't hard as dead bodies crawled towards him.
Just as Dumbledore tried to rise again and Harry pushed him back down, a column of smoke appeared in front of them, blocking the living from the dead. The cloud never dissipated, and Harry was expecting the deep ominous voice Death would sometimes use when angry, but was confused, and also slightly amused to hear, "Oi! You lot. Get back down there. What do you think you're doing?"
The inferi shrunk down and seemed ashamed as they slunk back into the water. The column of smoke was grumbling about the natural order being thrown off and stupid idiot wizards calling themselves Dark Lords. Dumbledore tried to sit up, but Harry once again pushed the man back down, not wanting him to injure himself or try to attack Harry's friend. "You ok?" the column of smoke addressed them.
"Yeah," Harry breathed. "I think I need to get the headmaster to Madam Pomfrey though. Can you shift us to Hogwarts?"
"Um, I can put you on the astronomy tower. I'm a little out of range to get you to a specific room in the castle without going with you," the column said after a minute of thought. "It'll take me a while to clear out this mess; I can't just leave them here. Please try to stay out of trouble."
"Thanks," Harry said as a white hand emerged from the column and Harry and Dumbledore appeared in a cloud of smoke on the astronomy tower, right under the glowing image of the Dark Mark.
After clearing out the inferi, Death was summoned to carry the soul of one of the abomination's minions on to the other realm from Hogwarts. Death was fuming; he had sent his Harry right into a battle while he was away taking care of that bloody inferi infestation. So, it was probably with a little more force than necessary that Death pulled Dumbledore's soul into the Changi airport waiting room he was still using (it really was a very calming airport).
"And, what do you have to say for yourself?" Death paced as he forcefully shoved Dumbledore down on a bench.
"Professor Osiris?" Dumbledore looked at him confused. "Did we both die, my boy? That's very unfortunate."
"Don't you 'my boy' me. I'm NOT your boy, and I'm older than you by millennia," Death pointed a long finger at Dumbledore. "You've been on my list for years. Where do you get off putting my Harry with those horrible people when he was a baby, and then hiding something you knew Voldemort wanted inside the castle, then you didn't close down the school when a BASILISK was roaming the halls, not to mention the dementors, a werewolf, a Death Eater professor, a tournament known to kill people, another professor torturing her students, and you obviously wanting my Harry to die! What do you have to say for yourself?! And, it'd better be good."
"Your Harry?" Dumbledore asked. Getting stuck on the same phrase as Sirius had before.
"Yes, my Harry," Death growled. "You deliberately put him in situations that either got him killed or almost got him killed."
"Got him killed…?" Dumbledore stumbled over his words, no twinkle in his eyes. "Wait, who are you?"
"Wizards really are very obtuse. You had a professor at the school called Remus Lupin, basically Wolfy McWolferson and no one realizes he's a werewolf. So, I don't even try to be subtle and called myself Dis Osiris, basically Death Lord of Death, and you ask who I am?!"
"You're Death," Dumbledore said, a statement, not a question. "You took the hallows."
"Of course, I did! They don't belong to you; they belong to Harry!"
"They…belong to Harry?"
"Yes, as the soulmate of Death, me, he is the born master of the hallows. They are his and have always been and will always be his. You still haven't answered my question. Why put Harry with people who hate him, why all the tests, why do you not care about that sweet, kind boy at all?" At this, Death's rage turned from a boil to more of a simmer, which was frankly much scarier.
"Harry must be kept safe. I put him with his relatives because of the blood wards. Even if they weren't the nicest people, he would at least be safe," Dumbledore explained, as if to a child.
Death was running out of patience. "You mean the people who killed him twice."
Dumbledore paled. "Killed?"
"Yes, those people you put him with to keep him safe killed him twice. Also, that abomination found him there with those dementors last summer and killed him then as well. Harry has died a total of 5 times, 4 of which I lay directly at your feet for negligence on your part. That is what I hold you accountable for."
"But how?...Why is he still alive?"
"Because I keep bringing him back. Because he's mine. He's the owner of the hallows, the master of death, my bonded soulmate, have you not been listening?! And, you hurt him!" Death seethed.
"The prophesy," Dumbledore started and frowned at Death's snort.
"You mean the prophesy that basically means nothing."
"It says that Harry is the one who must kill Voldemort," Dumbledore contradicted.
"No, it says one must die at the hand of the other for either to live, and that thing has killed him three times already. I think that one has officially died at the hand of the other. Don't you?"
Dumbledore put his head in his hands dejectedly. "You don't understand, he's a horcrux…"
"Yes, and I took that piece of soul out of him when he was 15 months old! I wasn't going to let that parasite leech off my Harry's soul and magic," Death started pacing in front of him. "If you truly believed he was a horcrux, did you even attempt to find a way to remove the soul or did you just condemn him to die?!"
"I just…I didn't understand anything did I?" Dumbledore looked at Death, with a lost look in his eyes. "I thought I knew, but I knew nothing…"
Death just snorted. He was tired of dealing with the old man now. He had all eternity to deal with him if he wanted. For now though, he'd turn him over to the one person that scared even him. "I don't have time for you right now. I need to get back to Harry. Come, it's teatime. There's a lady who wants to talk with you."
Dumbledore followed Death into the next realm, not knowing what he was about to get himself into.
Death held Harry in his quarters as he cried into the night. Even though Dumbledore had hurt him and manipulated his life, Harry still mourned his loss. He was sad to see him hurt and fall. He knew from what he had worked out with Death that Snape and Malfoy were just pawns and weren't entirely responsible for their actions, but he was still angry with them. It was a miracle none of the students at the school were killed. Bill was badly injured, but only a Death Eater had died.
"The horcrux was a fake," Harry finally told Death once he cried himself out and passed the fake locket over. "It wasn't even real."
"So, we still have three and the main soul piece out there," Death sighed.
"You weren't too mean to him, were you?" Harry asked from where his face was buried in Death's chest.
"I admit I did yell a bit, but nothing too horrible," Death continued to rub circles on Harry's back. "I turned him over to your mother, no telling what she's done to him. Nothing he didn't deserve in my opinion though."
Harry just gave a sniffle from where he was clinging.
"What are your plans now? I would prefer you to not return to your relatives."
"I will for just a little while, but I need to find the rest of the horcruxes and destroy them. Then, we can be free. I'm not returning to Hogwarts next year."
Death nodded. "I figured as much. I'll help as much as I can, but the soul pieces are so small, I can't find them until I'm very close to them."
"We'll come up with a plan. We have a few weeks at my relatives'. I'll see you there?"
"Of course, I'll never leave you, especially with them," Death assured as he tilted Harry's face up and kissed his lips, the tears on his cheeks, his eyelids, and his lips again.
Harry pushed back on Death until he was laying on top of him. "Dis, the school's closed; you're no longer my professor, and I'm not your student. I know I'm not 17, and I haven't put the ring on yet, but I'd like to be with you tonight, completely." Harry started unbuttoning Death's shirt to get his point across and kissing down the smooth chest to the waistband of Dis's trousers. Death sucked in a startled breath.
"Oh," he breathed. "Are you sure?"
"Completely," Harry said, unbuckling Death's belt.
"Is…is this your first time?" Death asked.
"I've been waiting for you," Harry said pulling the belt out slowly. He seemed to catch himself at the way that sounded and looked at Death concerned. "I didn't mean…I know I'm not your first, and that's fine…I just…Oh, bloody Hell! I'm so not good at this!"
Death laughed. "Well, you'd have assumed incorrectly," he said reaching up and removing Harry's shirt, admiring the toned physique marred by scars that showed the hard life the boy had led. "You're the only human I've ever been attracted to. I've never really understood human emotions until I met you. So, I wouldn't know if you were bad at this, but based on what you're doing to my body right now, I think you're excellent!"
With the happiest look on his face Death had ever seen, Harry continued to kiss down Death's stomach, this time removing the trousers as he went. Death let out a moan as he waved his hand and set up every lock and ward he'd ever heard of to keep out the living and the dead from his quarters, making sure they'd never be interrupted.
Up next: You didn't think Death just left Umbridge alone did you?