Disclaimer: Still don't own Harry Potter.
A/N: Everything is moving up timeline-wise from the books. So, this is all happening earlier than it did in book world.
After the tent and all their supplies, as well as the leftover food, were packed away into Hermione's wonderful beaded bag. Death had the trio gather together. He looked at them all, then waved a hand over their heads. "There, now no one will recognize you. When they look at you, they'll think you're someone they've never seen before."
"Brilliant!" Harry exclaimed. "I need to know how to do that in the future."
"Of course. I'll teach you later. It won't work for the goblins though. They have their own ways of knowing who you are, but I doubt they'll care since they're neutral in the war," Death explained. "If they make a fuss, just grab onto me, and I'll get us all out of there."
"Erm, not that I'm complaining, Dis," Harry began. "But, aren't you supposed to be a neutral party as well? You haven't been acting very neutral lately."
"And, I'll act much less neutral once all the horcruxes are destroyed," Death almost growled. "That abomination has basically declared war on me. He sends countless people to me before their time and has made a mockery of the balance of nature through those horcruxes of his. That's not to mention his desire to kill my soulmate. Once all the horcruxes are destroyed, he'll find I'm no longer a neutral party!"
Harry cackled, yes cackled, gleefully, "I'm so looking forward to that day!"
"After he's destroyed, I then plan to spend the next, however long it takes, to make sure that all documentation and knowledge of how to make a horcrux is erased from this world," Death continued with an ominous look in his eyes. He took a deep breath and looked back at the group of mortals. "Shall we?" Death smiled, offering his arm to Harry.
"We'll just meet you there, at the apparition point outside Gringotts," Hermione spoke up, remembering Snape's reaction from the day before.
"Suit yourself," Death said as he and Harry disappeared into a dark cloud.
They weren't in Diagon Alley for two minutes until Harry's head was accosted by a chattering ball of feathers. "Aaah!" He yelled as he danced around, trying to get away from the crazy owl that wanted to nest in his hair. "Pig! Ron, calm your owl!"
After grabbing the tiny owl from Harry's head, Ron pulled the letter off the bird's foot. "We just left our wards. He's probably been trying to find you to deliver this for a while," Ron said, handing over the letter as he tried to calm the hyper owl in his fist. "Is everything ok at the safe house?" He asked as Harry read it over.
Harry laughed and smiled at them. "Everything is fine! I have a new godson, Theodore Lupin! Remus and Tonks had their baby!" He handed the letter over to Ron and Hermione to read.
"Does this mean I have a step-godson? Or a godson-in-law?" Death enquired with an odd look on his face.
"I guess it does," Harry smiled as Death's look changed into a large grin.
"I must figure out how to spoil a child properly. You were not good practice for that," Death said pulling Harry into a hug.
"Well, at least you know all the card games to teach him!"
"Shall we get this show on the road?" Hermione asked, nervously looking at the bank as she handed Harry's letter back to him.
Harry summoned a piece of parchment and a quill out of Hermione's bag and wrote a quick reply back to Remus. "I'm telling him we'll stop by as soon as we're able," Harry said, attaching the letter to Pig and sending him off again. "Well, let's go!"
Death paused at the doors to the bank. "Harry, pull the ring out from your shirt so the goblins can see it. They'll recognize what it means since you'll be with me. It may give you a little more protection."
Harry pulled the ring out. "You both know you don't need to come with us," He told Ron and Hermione. "Especially if you're going to scream and run when Dis gets all scary. If you don't think you can hold it together, you should probably wait out here for us."
"We're in this together, mate," Ron assured him after a quick glance over to Hermione.
"All right then," Death said, instantly transforming. His kind, chocolate-colored eyes resembled a grim's where they were windows to flickering flames. His aura darkened even more to where there were visible shadows surrounding him as his skin took on a deathly pallor. Lastly, his usual jeans and dress shirt attire changed to black robes with tattered edges that moved by themselves like tendrils around him culminating in a hood covering most of his face.
"Merlin! You're terrifying!" Ron gasped as Hermione slightly paled and trembled.
Harry laughed. "Merlin! You're hot!" He corrected.
"I appreciate both," Death answered in a disembodied voice as his lips didn't move to his words anymore. He turned and the doors to the bank opened by themselves as the trio followed behind him into the warm lobby.
It was early morning, so there were very few customers in the bank, just a witch and wizard who seemed to be a couple. They quickly scurried out a side door as soon as Death entered, forgetting all about their business. The goblins at the desks visibly backed away from their counters, none offering to help.
Finally, when Death and the trio reached the center of the large lobby, one brave goblin walked towards them. "How may we serve you, my Lord Hel?" The goblin asked in a shaky voice and with a low bow. "I'm Ragnok, the manager here at Gringotts. I do not believe we have had dealings with you before."
"Translation, Hel is basically the same as Dis, just Norse," Hermione whispered to Ron and Harry who nodded to her thankfully.
"There is an object in the vault of one Bellatrix Lestrange that belongs to me," Death said as he led the brave goblin over to the side of the lobby for more privacy. "I request this object to be handed over to me."
Ragnok's gaze flickered over the trio and came to a surprised rest on Harry's ring. "Of course, my lords," he said, now including Harry in the conversation. "I will need to know what the item is and how it belongs to you before taking it from a customer's vault though. We do not take items from our customers without exceptionally good reasons. It's bad business, you see."
Death raised an approving eyebrow at the courage of the goblin who was still trying to follow procedure even as he was visibly shaking. "It's a horcrux," the goblin started, and a look of anger crossed his face. "As deemed by magic and nature herself, souls not residing in a living body are my property, regardless of the dark magic hiding it. I have the right to do with these souls as I will. I also warn you; I do not have to ask. As you well know, I can take what is mine. I trust your people will help me respect the laws of magic and nature though."
"I apologize my lords. If we had known we had such a repulsive and profane object here at Gringotts, we would not have allowed it past the doors. What will it look like?"
"It'll look like a cup, the cup of Helga Hufflepuff," Harry explained to Ragnok.
Ragnok called over another goblin who Harry was surprised to recognize as Griphook, the one who had originally taken him to his vault. He spoke to Griphook in the goblin language for a minute before Griphook left towards the vaults. "He will only be a minute," Ragnok assured them.
As they waited, Harry looked around, noticing that the goblins had closed the bank for them. The doors were shut and locked, and most of the goblin tellers were no longer in the lobby. He had never heard of the bank closing before, this had to be a noteworthy occurrence.
Griphook returned shortly carrying a leather bag, carefully not touching the horcrux. Death took the proffered bag and looked into it. "Thank you, most worthy Ragnok," Death said, recognizing it was what they were looking for. "I appreciate and will remember your service this day. Do not tell anyone of our business here, especially the Lestrange woman or her master. I will take care of them myself. May it be a long time before we meet again."
Ragnok bowed low to them again and scurried off as Death and the trio turned to leave. Harry was surprised as a long-fingered hand grabbed onto his arm to hold him back. "Griphook?" Harry asked, wondering why the goblin stopped him.
"You remembered me?" Griphook smiled a toothy smile at Harry.
"Of course. How can I help you?"
"I noticed your ring, my lord," Griphook said, motioning to the hallows. "It's not yet on your finger, but I assume it will be soon?"
Harry looked at the goblin in confusion but inclined his head in agreement. "Ah, then I must ask if you have a will made out. Your vaults will no longer be attached to you in the event of your death, or rather, exit from this realm."
Harry smiled at Griphook in gratitude for the information. "Could you set it up where everything goes to my godson, Theodore Lupin?"
"Of course, my lord," Griphook bowed slightly. "I will take care of it for you."
"Thank you, Griphook," Harry said as he joined his friends in leaving the bank.
Ron and Hermione regrouped with Harry and Death on the shores of a lake Hermione had remembered travelling to with her parents years before. Harry tossed the horcrux out of the leather bag and enlarged the silver toothpick into Gryffindor's sword again. "Well, no time like the present," he said as he slammed the sword into the cup releasing a screaming dark cloud that Death immediately grabbed and disappeared with.
"That was a little anticlimactic," Ron complained.
"Well, I could have played around with it for a bit and made it fight back, but I didn't really see the point in any of us getting injured just to make it more exciting," Harry grinned over at his friend.
"So, what now?" Hermione asked Harry. "Nagini is always with You-Know-Who. I don't think you can get them separated."
"Maybe Snape's come up with something?" Harry suggested as he pulled out the dog whistle. "I did tell him we'd let him know when the horcrux was destroyed."
"He probably didn't think it would be the next day though, mate," Ron said with a chuckle.
"The longer we wait, the more people are hurt and killed," Harry said as he blew the whistle and Phobos happily appeared and ran over to them.
Just as Harry had summoned parchment and quill from Hermione's bag again, he collapsed to the ground clutching his scar. "What's wrong Harry?! What's he doing?" Hermione pulled Harry into her arms as he clutched at his head.
After a minute, Harry's brow unfurrowed, and he looked up at his two friends. He blinked a couple times, processing what he'd just seen. "He was talking with an old man in a cell. Grindelwald maybe? He knows the wand was Dumbledore's. I think he's headed to Hogwarts!"
"What happens when he realizes the wand Dumbledore was buried with is ash instead of elder wood?" Hermione gasped.
"I would guess…nothing good."
"And, he'll be right beside a school with children in it," Ron groaned. "With my sister in it."
Harry quickly wrote a note to Snape telling him the cup was destroyed and the Dark Lord was on his way to Hogwarts (Harry wasn't sure if writing the name was taboo as well, so he wasn't going to chance it). "I'm asking if he knows of a way we can get to the castle without alerting the Death Eaters," Harry explained as he rolled up the parchment and put it in Phobos's mouth. "Take this to Severus Snape at Hogwarts. Only deliver it when he's alone, ok? And, please wait for a reply." Phobos barked his eerily echoing bark and disappeared into the shadows.
The trio impatiently waited for a reply as Harry paced along the shore of the lake. It about thirty minutes though before Phobos once again appeared with a new roll of parchment in his mouth. Harry unrolled it to read:
Potter,
Your grim stared at me from the shadows until I dismissed Flitwick who was in my office for a meeting. Please instruct him not to do that again. It was quite…disconcerting.
I was contacted by the Dark Lord right after receiving your letter to meet him at the Shrieking Shack in two hours' time in order to escort him to Dumbledore's tomb. I share your concern that he will be most upset when the wand is not as he expected.
You cannot come anywhere near Hogwarts without Death Eaters being alerted. New wards have been constructed specifically to track your magical signature. I implore you to think this through. If you show up here, this war will be brought to a head here and now.
Regardless, I believe my time as a Death Eater has come to an end. I must alert the faculty to protect the school and incapacitate the Carrows. Whatever you decide, I believe this is the end of my usefulness as a spy.
Notify me if we should be expecting a war or just a very murderous Dark Lord.
Preparing for tea with your mother,
Severus Snape
"Well isn't he just a ray of sunshine," Ron grumbled.
"Do we leave him to deal with You-Know-Who alone?" Hermione said, reading through the letter again.
"I don't think we can," Harry slowly replied as he took Snape's advice and thought it through. "This is an opportunity to get Old Moldy alone and away from his Death Eaters. He goes nowhere without Nagini, so it's just him and the last horcrux. When else will we get that chance? And, are you really willing to risk a murderous psychopath that close to the school? It may end up being war whether we're there or not."
"I, for one, am not willing to risk Ginny anywhere near him," Ron agreed.
"Plus, mum hasn't been informed about company for tea, and it's never polite to show up unannounced," Harry smiled at his friends.
"You have such a weird relationship with death," Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Tell me about it!" Death laughed as he appeared behind them in his normal dark cloud but looking like their old professor again. "What'd I miss?"
"How accurately can you shift me somewhere?" Harry asked as he squeezed Death's hand.
"If I'm with you, I can get you anywhere you want to go," Death answered questioningly. "If I'm not, I can shift you accurately wherever it isn't heavily warded, like Hogwarts. Then I would only feel comfortable setting you somewhere outside or high, like the astronomy tower or the courtyard since I'm more blind as to the layout. I'd hate to set you down inside a wall on accident."
"Ok, so, Dis, Moldy is heading to Hogwarts. Here's my plan…You shift me to the Shrieking Shack, right inside the tunnel heading to Hogwarts. Moldy is meeting up with Snape there. The three of you shift directly inside Hogwarts and help prepare the faculty and students for an invasion since the Death Eaters will be notified as soon as I appear in Hogsmeade."
"We're not separating from you!" Ron indignantly disagreed.
"Wait, hear me out," Harry continued with a raised hand. "I'm not going after Moldy. I'll only attack the snake. Since we aren't inside the wards, I can still apparate, remember. So, I invisibly sneak up on the snake and stab it with the sword. If I disapparate immediately afterwards to Honeydukes (preferably with Snape as well), we can go through the tunnel to meet up with you all inside the castle's wards. We'll then all be in a fortified position to take on Moldy's army without all his horcruxes. Hopefully, we could do this quickly enough I'd be gone before Moldy even realizes Nagini's dead."
"It's not the safest plan," Death interjected. "I dislike not being with you."
"I need you to get Ron and Hermione past the wards into Hogwarts. They can't apparate in," Harry explained. "And, the more people in the shack, the longer it'll take for me to get out again."
"Splitting up is never a good idea, mate," Ron said shaking his head.
"Do you have a better plan?" Harry asked with a raise of his eyebrow, hoping that Ron actually did.
When none of them could come up with another plan quickly, Harry flipped over Snape's letter and wrote:
Prepare for war. I'll see you in the shack.
He gave the note back to Phobos who obediently returned to the headmaster.
The trio planned several ways for Ron and Hermione to help as soon as they entered the castle and hugged each other, no one admitting this might be the last time they were all together in this realm. Finally, it was time to go and split up for the first time since the summer. Death pulled Harry into a tight hug. "You ready, Love?" He asked.
"As I'll ever be," Harry kissed him lovingly.
"Ok, you two need to prepare yourselves," Death told Ron and Hermione. "I'll take you as soon as I send Harry. This will be very unpleasant for you."
Ron and Hermione just nodded as Harry disappeared in a dark cloud and they each felt Death grip one of their arms.
Harry knew none of his plans ever went the way they were supposed to. Therefore, he was unsurprised when he looked into the main room of the Shrieking Shack and saw Nagini encased in a protective bubble. He was sure the sword could pierce the bubble, being infused with basilisk venom, but it would also take away some of the element of surprise.
"My lord, welcome back to Hogwarts," Snape was saying as Harry crept around the two of them, pulling invisibility from his ring of hallows.
Voldemort's head snapped up, looking around the room. "The boy is here, the wards have been activated," he told Snape with almost a gleeful sneer.
"I assume the others are on the way?" Snape asked with a small smile in return.
Voldemort forcefully grabbed Snape's left arm and touched the Dark Mark, eliciting a wince from Snape. "They are now," he replied.
Harry had reached Nagini by this point. It was only the matter of one strike of the sword to break the protective bubble and one more strike to sever Nagini's head. It was one strike too many though since the bubble breaking alerted Voldemort to his presence. As Nagini's head left her body, Harry sighed as a green light slammed into him following a screamed "Avada Kedavra!" from Voldemort.
Death shifted Ron and Hermione to directly in front of Professor McGonagall in the Hogwarts castle. As they both recovered from their panic attack, McGonagall looked the three over. "Professor Osiris? How did you all get here?"
"No time," He said, helping Hermione up from the ground. "Are you all ready for the attack? How can we help?"
"We've sealed all the younger students in their dorms. You can join the others in front of the castle to strengthen the wards," McGonagall nodded to them as she hurried to the front of the castle herself.
Death closed his eyes and then raised his hands slowly until they reached over his head. "There, that should do it," he nodded, opening his eyes again.
"Do what?" Hermione asked, still catching her breath.
"I raised soul wards around the dormitories. Nothing living will be able to enter or exit until I lower them," Death explained. "The only way the abomination could get around them are inferi, and he would find that the dead will not serve him if I'm around."
"Brilliant!" Hermione responded with an interested look in her eyes, wanting to know more about the wards.
"We should get moving now, if you are recovered," Death motioned to where McGonagall had run off a moment before. They hurried after her until Ron was bowled over by a familiar red head. "Ginny! What are you doing outside the tower?!"
"There's no way I'm staying behind," she exclaimed giving her brother and Hermione quick hugs. "I've just as much right to fight for those I love as the seventh years."
"Mum will kill you if the Death Eaters don't," Ron warned her, knowing he wouldn't be able to stop her though.
All three of them turned quickly around as Death let out soft sob behind them. He gave a sad look to Ron and Hermione before he disappeared. "No! Oh No!" Hermione gasped, understanding why he had left them.
They all took off running through the castle. "What happened?" Ginny asked, following them.
Neither answered as they ran toward the front entrance to the castle. It seemed to take forever before they reached the doors and pushed out to join the crowd of seventh year students, faculty, and Order of the Phoenix members who were standing behind the wards, ready to protect the castle and the younger children. "No!" Hermione shrieked again as Neville Longbottom caught her before she could run outside the wards.
Approaching the castle was Voldemort, flanked by an army of Death Eaters, giants, and werewolves, outnumbering the small army in front of the castle by almost four to one. Snape was reluctantly walking to the right of Voldemort beside the levitating dead body of one Harry Potter.
Death sighed as he sat beside Harry on their bench in Kings Cross Station. "That wasn't the plan," he said putting an arm around his love.
"The last horcrux is gone though," Harry said as he leaned his head into Death's shoulder. "It's just Voldemort left."
"I'm so sorry for your pain," Death said. Though it was commonly believed the killing curse caused no pain when the body died, it was untrue, but it was only Harry Potter who would ever be able to correct that misconception.
"I'm so tired, Dis," Harry said, pulling the necklace from around his neck and holding the bonding ring of hallows in his hand. "I've died six times now. Five more times than anyone should ever die. I feel the death in my soul."
"I know, Love," Death said, kissing Harry's temple.
"I can't do it again," he said softly. "I don't know if I can leave the ones I love to handle Voldemort on their own though. They deserve a life before their afterlife."
Death took the ring from Harry and slid it off the chain. He stood and knelt before his soulmate. "War has been declared on the very balance of nature, Harry," Death began. "Death is no longer a neutral party in this war as I've said before. Now that the last horcrux is gone, I have no intention to leave the living to handle my problem on their own. Will you stand beside me, Harry James Potter, soulmate of Death and master of the hallows? Would you bond with me for eternity? Would you lead the armies of Hell into battle to protect the living?"
Harry looked from the ring to Death and a smile lit up his face. "Hell yes!" He said as he held out his left hand for Death to slide the ring onto his finger. As soon as the ring was on his hand, Harry had the strangest feeling. He felt his body merging once more with his soul, but then he felt them both change. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling, but it felt of permanence, of eternity, of strength and power. Harry gasped as Death smiled and pulled him into an embrace.
"We should return," Harry finally said as he stopped Death who had started kissing a trail down his neck. "They need us."
Death snorted. "We're in the waiting room; we can stay as long as we want and return to whenever we want," he said with a mischievous grin. Death waved his hand and a large, four-poster bed appeared right in the middle of the station. "Care to make this marriage official before we return?"
Harry wrapped his arms and legs around Death who carried him to the bed where they both collapsed in laughter and kisses.
Hi All! One more chapter and an epilogue. I'll post those together on Sunday. Thanks for sticking with the story.