Author rant: - There are some changes from original. In my story Sue Li is muggleborn. Grindelwald will not polyjuice as Albus. His Animagus forms may change if I come with some of my liking. Sue has mostly taken place of Hermione in Original fanfic as I don't like her and her attitude.

A/N: I don't own Harry Potter

Chapter 3: The Meeting with Death

"Uh, I'm sorry, but who are you? Where the hell am I? And most importantly, why the hell are you calling me Master?"

Harry gulped softly as the friendly smile disappeared from the woman's face, and she replied, "Well, straight to business I see.

I guess I should just answer your questions in order than. First, my name is Death. Yes, THAT Death. I realize it's not the persona you were expecting to see, but this is me normally, so deal with it. Currently I have brought you into my realm, and I thought this room would help put you at ease. As for why I am calling you Master...it's because you are in possession of all three Hallows. As long as someone holds all three, they can prevent me from reaping their soul."

For some reason that he couldn't imagine, Harry knew the woman in front of him was really Death, and that she was telling him the truth. As her words slowly began to sink in for him, Harry couldn't believe the Hallows were real. He never thought anyone should have that type of power, and when he thought of why Death would want to speak to him, he figured it could only be about the items in his possession.

Quickly coming to a decision, Harry pulled off the ring that contained the Resurrection stone, grabbed the Elder Wand from his wrist holster and tossed both items to the woman in front of him.

"I'm sorry for holding on to those, mam, but I didn't think that the Hallows were real. If this is about me being your Master, then you have no need to worry, Lady Death. As far as I'm concerned, no one should have that type of power. You can have the other two Hallows back, but, if possible, I would like to keep my father's cloak. In return I promise when my time comes, I won't make a fuss."

Harry wasn't expecting the silence and cold stare from the woman in front of him. After a minute he became uncomfortable with the continued glare, and said, " If that's all, could you send me back please. I was working on a potion, and I should be adding the wolf hair soon."

Death looked upon the young man that was facing her in surprise. For thousands of years, she had been reaping the souls of mankind, and through those years she had seen few mortals that were truly pure of spirit. When she learned of her current predicament from her sister, Fate, Death asked her to help her find a Champion. Harry Potter from the Earth in Universe 3147, had been the person her sister sent to find. If his past actions had not convinced her, his current actions had more than shown that Fate had chosen the right Champion for her.

"You surprise me, Mr. Potter. Most of mankind is looking to find ways to escape my clutches, and yet here you are giving up your power over me so easily."

Harry shrugged uncomfortably under her piercing gaze. "Like I said before, ma'am, no one should have that type of power."

When Death slowly nodded her head in agreement, Harry silently let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"While your actions here are a pleasant surprise, this is not why I have brought you to my realm, Mr. Potter. I have need of a Champion, and my sister assures me that you are perfect for the role."

"You have a sister?"

"Yes, Mr. Potter. You may know her as Fate. She's quite whimsical really, but she's never steered me wrong before."

Harry was shocked by what he was hearing. Not only did he find out that he was the Master of Death, but now she wanted him to be her Champion too. The entire situation was so ridiculous, Harry did the only thing he could think of...he laughed.

Death watched as her hopeful Champion began to giggle slowly. A well-manicured eyebrow moved slowly up her forehead, when the giggling turned into full-fledged laughter. Here she was offering this mortal a chance at a better life by being her Champion, and he had the audacity to laugh at her? Unacceptable.

"Did I say something funny, Mr. Potter?" Death asked coldly.

The moment he heard her tone, Harry was filled with dread at the thought upsetting such a powerful entity. Hoping to appease her, he quickly controlled his mirth and replied, "My apologies, Lady Death, but I couldn't help but think how ridiculous this situation is. An hour ago, I was living the life of a hermit on my Island, and now Death herself wants me to be her Champion. It's a lot to take in all at once."

"Very well, Mr. Potter," Death replied, her tone slightly less icy than before. "Now, will you agree to be my Champion?"

Harry's natural reaction was to say no, but he had come far from the boy who jumped head long into any problem. Now he actually liked to gather as much information as possible, before making said leap.

"What exactly do you need me for, my Lady?", Harry asked curiously.

"To kill Voldemort, Mr. Potter."

Harry was stunned by her reply. He knew he had destroyed all of Voldemort's soul anchors to this world. There was no way the snake faced bastard escaped his death at the battle of Hogwarts.

"That's not possible, ma'am. I destroyed all his horcruxes. Tom can't still be alive."

Death winced at his statement, and she knew it was her fault for not being clearer. "My apologies, Mr. Potter. You're absolutely correct. The Voldemort of this world is dead and I thank you for returning his soul to me. The Voldemort I'm speaking of is from another world. It is this man, that I am recruiting you to defeat."

"Another world?"

"Yes, Mr. Potter. The Earth you live on, is just one of many. There are millions of Earths in the millions of different universes that exist in the multiverse."

Harry couldn't believe he was being asked to kill another Voldemort in another world. He'd already paid the price for his victory. What the hell was his counterpart doing? If he could win with all the obstacles he faced in his life, he couldn't fathom why his counterpart wasn't able to do the same.

"Uh, I'm sorry, Lady Death, but why can't the me from that world kill him?"

Death was pleased the young Wizard was asking questions and not rejecting her offer right away. Wanting to be honest with her potential Champion, she didn't hesitate to answer his question.

"The other you can't defeat Voldemort for me, because in that world he is a pseudo-squib and the Boy Who Lived is actually Neville Longbottom."

"Wait what?! I'm a pseudo-squib? What the hell is that? And Nev is the Boy Who Lived? Don't get me wrong, I love Nev. He's a great bloke, but I'm not sure if he's up for the challenge."

"I agree with you, Mr. Potter," Death replied with a small smile. "A pseudo-squib is someone who is a squib due to their magic not working, as opposed to someone who doesn't have any magic to begin with. The other you have a rare medical condition that caused his magical core to twist upon itself. As a result, he can feel the magic with him, but he can't get it to do anything."

Harry took a deep breath as he tried to take in everything he was hearing. If there were really millions of different worlds out there, and he really didn't have any reason to doubt Death, by the law of probability, some of those worlds had to end with Voldemort being the victor. If that's so, then why was this world's Voldemort so important?

"Why is this Voldemort so important, madam? If as you say there are millions of different Earths, there has to have been a few where Voldemort emerged victorious. What's so special about this one?"

Death wanted to be honest with her future Champion, but she didn't want to tell him about the power that could be available to him in the new world. If there was one thing the past 5000 years had taught her, it was absolute power corrupts absolutely. But then she remembered how easily Harry had given up his power over the Hallows, and with her sister's recommendation clearly in his corner, she knew she had to take a chance.

"This Voldemort is important, Mr. Potter, because if left unchecked, he will one day find an item that will grant him the ability to strip my power from me. As I'm sure you are aware, should someone of Voldemort's moral standards have my abilities, he will no doubt use it to subjugate all the worlds that I can go to."

"Merlin's beard," Harry cursed softly to himself. "What kind of item would give him such an ability."

Death was willing to trust and be honest with her Champion, but even she would not dare to tempt fate. "The item is not important, Mr. Potter. I don't need you to look for it, or try to destroy it. What I need you to do, is kill Voldemort before he has an inkling that something like that even exists."

Harry was a little hurt that she wouldn't tell him what the item was, but when he took a second to think about it, he realized he would have done the same thing if he was in her position.

"Just out of curiosity, why is that world's Boy Who Lived not capable of doing the job?"

Death gently massaged her head, when she heard the question. Neville Longbottom had been a pain in her neck in many worlds, and she cursed her sister for making him the Savior in the world she needed Voldemort to definitely lose.

When she saw Harry was waiting patiently for her reply, she sighed and replied, "In most of the worlds where Voldemort is a problem, the Boy Who Lived is usually you. You and your counterparts have a success rate of 92% in defeating the Dark Lord. In the worlds where Neville is the Boy Who Lived, the opposite hold true. With his failure rate, I can't leave this Voldemort up to him."

Harry momentarily allowed himself to bask in his and his counterpart's ability to defeat the Dark Wanker. It was nice to know he was good at fulfilling his destiny, no matter what universe he was in. Once he was done revelling in his glory, Harry seriously considered helping Death. Should any version of Snake face get a hold of Death's powers, he knew it would be bad for everyone.

The Gryffindor in Harry was screaming to jump up and say yes, but the Slytherin in him was urging caution. With Neville'ssuccess rate, Harry already knew he was going to say yes to Death. He couldn't risk Voldemort ever getting possession of her powers. But just because he was going to fight for her, didn't mean he couldn't try to get the best price for his services.

"I understand your predicament, Lady Death, and I might consider agreeing to become your Champion. But what are you offering me in return?"

When she heard his request, Death wanted to jump up and down with joy. She was now positive her Champion was going to fight on her behalf, and she was more than willing to make the deal as sweet as possible for him.

"The world I want to send you to is several years behind your own. While your world shares many similarities with the other one, they also have many differences. For instance, in the other world, your parents did not die on Halloween. While Peter still betrayed them to his master, Voldemort chose to attack the Longbottom's, and sent Bella, Rudolph, Rabastan and Crouch Jr. to deal with your family. Fortunately, that night Sirius was visiting your parents, and when they arrived the three of them managed to defeat the four Death Eaters. Meanwhile Voldemort killed Neville's parents and he became the Boy Who Lived."

Death could see the hope flash across Harry's green eyes, and disappear just as quickly. The moment it did, she knew what was bothering him.

"You are concerned about your counterpart?"

Harry nodded his head in answer. "Then allow me to ease your worries, Mr. Potter. Your counterpart has spent the last several years pushing his friends and family further away from him. He is bitter at his being a squib, and over the years his attitude has only gotten worse. Even though he has found a way to treat his magical core, his future still looks bleak. Should he fail infixing his malady, it will result in his death before his eleventh birthday. Should he succeed in fixing his core, the bitterness he developed only worsens as he gets older. By the time Voldemort makes his return, your counterpart will join him, and eventually he will rise through the ranks and become one of the Dark Lords most valued Death Eaters."

Harry couldn't believe the other version of him would join Snake face, but he didn't think Death would lie to him. He didn't want to take over someone's life, but if their only options were death or turn evil, Harry was willing to do it. "If I said yes, how would this work? Obviously, I'm a lot older than the me in the other world. What happens to my body? Do I still keep my magic, or do I have to use his?"

"Since you will be living in the new world, you would have to leave your current body behind. Once your counterpart's soul leaves his body, I will push your soul and magical core into his. This should not only blend your abilities with his, but the merger of his core with yours, should also fix the problems Dumbledore caused by blocking your core for so long. If anything, it might even make you stronger than what you might normally have been in your original world."

The merging of the two cores was pretty straight forward for Harry, but the abilities' part still confused him. "What did you mean about blending our abilities, Lady Death?"

"Parselmouth is an ability you gained when you defeated Voldemort for the first time on Halloween," Death explained. "It is now a part of your magic, and will be passed down to your future descendants. Also, all of the skills you have gained in your eighteen years, will be added to the skills your counterpart's body already possess."

"What skills does my counterpart possess?" Harry asked curiously.

Death snapped her fingers and a small brown file suddenly popped into her hands. She flipped through it and said, "Your counterpart is smart, Mr. Potter. If you need a point of reference, he's probably smarter than your friend Miss Li. He'salso very adept at Runes. At the age of 9 he discovered a way to allow magic to work with Muggle electronics, but kept the discovery a secret. He's also quite good at investing. A true money maker."

Harry was stunned that a little kid had discovered something that people in his world still hadn't figured out. But what caught his curiosity was the point Death made about investing. He could see a kid that was smarter than Su figuring out runes, but he couldn't understand how a kid his counterpart's age could be good at investing. Kids that age rarely had access to enough money to make an investment worthwhile.

"Sorry to interrupt ma'am, but how does a little kid even get enough money to work the market?"

Death flipped through a few more pages in the file and explained, "At the age of seven your counterpart determined since he was a squib, his parents would Obliviate him and send him to an orphanage once his Hogwarts letter failed to appear. While this wasn't true, and his parents loved him regardless of his magic, he still believed it. Since he didn't want to give up his knowledge of the magical world, he prepared himself to escape into the muggle world, rather than be Obliviated. Knowing he would need money, he wrote to the Potter accounts manager and asked about his trust fund. When he was born his parents deposited 5000 galleons into his trust vault. Every year since then, 1000 galleons has been deposited. At the age of seven he had roughly 11000 galleons or 110000 pounds in his trust vault. While he wasn't allowed to withdraw money until he was eleven, he realized the rules didn't prohibit him from investing the money. After researching several muggle companies, he instructed the Goblins which companies he wanted to invest in and made enough money to open a separate account and return his original trust fund money with a fifteen percent interest."

Harry always believed Hermione was one of the smartest people he ever met, but he doubted even she could have done what his counterpart did. The little bastard may have been a Death Eater in waiting, but there was no question as to his brilliance.

"How much money did he end up making?"

Death knew Harry was a little put out by the younger Wizard's success compared to his own at the same age, and so she took little joy in shocking her new Champion. "You will be taking over his body a month before his eleventh birthday, and by that time his investments will have earned him 14 million galleons. That's after he returned the original seed money plus interest tohis trust vault."

"Merlin's balls, that kid is smart," Harry exclaimed in awe.

Death only grinned and nodded her head in agreement. "So, Mr. Potter. What do you think?"

Harry thought about the world she was offering him, and he had to admit the new world was better than his own. He didn't think he would ever be able to complete his promise to Sirius in his own world, but he just might have a chance in the new one.

"When it comes to Snake face, how similar is the new world to mine? Does he still have horcruxes? Are they the same?"

Death sighed because she knew this was the question, she was truly afraid of. Not wanting to hide anything from her Champion, she continued, "Yes, he has horcruxes, and yes they are the same. At some point you will have to remove the one in Mr. Longbottom to succeed. Barring any drastic changes you may make to the timeline, most of the events leading up to your fourth year should be the same in the new world. The major difference will come at the end of the third task in the Triwizard'sTournament. Instead of coming back in the mutilated body you dealt with, Voldemort will be reborn in a body more powerful than his original one."

Voldemort was tough a tough bastard to begin with, and Harry couldn't fathom him being even more powerful. "Why the new body?", he asked. "How much stronger will this body make him?"

"During the first war in your world, Mr. Potter, Voldemort only looked through a few of the tombs he stole from the families that he killed off. As such he poured most of his time into creating the Island you now live on. In the other world Voldemort was more thorough in his reading. He came upon an ancient text that allowed a person to create a Homunculus and then give it real life by adding a person's soul to it. The new body would require the willing deaths of a married Witch and Wizard, and once Voldemort's soul was added to the new body, his core would meld with the cores of the two others. Before he made his attempt on Mr. Longbottom's life, Voldemort had already sacrificed two of his followers to create the Homunculus. By the time he is ready to be reborn, his new body will have been magically aged to 25 years and he will be in the prime of his life."

The silence that followed was tough for Death. Thanks to Fate she knew Harry was her best bet to keep her powers, but she was afraid he would refuse to fight against such odds. All her doubts were put to rest, when she heard him say, "I'll do it, but I have some conditions."

Death was thrilled when Harry agreed to be her Champion, and she was more than willing to accommodate any reasonable conditions.

"Sure thing, my Champion," she answered happily. "What can I do for you?"

"First, a small question. How tall will I be in my new body?"

Death was a little taken aback by the random question, but she still went through the file Fate gave her. "Since your new body will be healthy, at the age you enter you will be 5'0" tall. At your peak physical maturity, you will stand at 5'8" in height."

Harry thought for a second and then replied, "My first condition is that I want to be taller once I reach physical maturity. I'm tired of having to look up to most of the people in the Wizarding world. Can you, do it?"

Death shrugged her shoulders and nodded her head in agreement. "Sure. It'll be a sinch to stimulate the bones when I'm putting you into the new body. Any particular height you're looking for?"

"As long as I hit 6'0" I don't care."

Once Harry saw Death nod her head again, he continued with the second item on his list. "I also want to take everything I have in this world with me. That includes the Island I'm living on."

Death knew the second request was a little more extensive, but she decided it was still doable. "Fine. Once you're in the new world, I'll transport the Island and everything else you have here to a new location in that world. I'll leave the knowledge of the location in your mind."

"I would also ask for permission to tell family the truth. Only Potter's and people close to them?"

Death was in deep thought.

"Fine I will allow you to tell the truth but I will give you spell so that you can create a block in their mind so that no one can find the truth using any kind of mind tricks. Anything else?"

"Just one last thing," Harry replied hesitantly. "I have some properties here that I didn't end up selling to the Goblins. They're quite valuable and I would like to get rid of them before I leave. My account manager made an offer for them, but I've been too busy to worry about it. I was hoping you could help me sell the properties before I leave."

Death was well aware that Harry wasn't normally so materialistic, so she found herself curious at his sudden desire to accumulate wealth. "That should be fine, Mr. Potter, but may I ask why this sudden concern you have for money?"

Harry blushed at the thought of Death thinking he was being greedy and replied, "You're pretty much giving me a second chance at life. With the knowledge I have now, and what I would gain once I blend with my counterpart, I have a real chance at making a difference in the world. If the new world's government is anything like the one from my world, then the Magical community has been stagnant for too long. If I can help drag them into the future, maybe there can finally be an end to the pureblood supremacists that rule our world."

Death smiled when she realized what he was planning to do. She recalled the talks he had with Miss Li during their time together in the Chamber, and she applauded his decision to make a difference in the world. As long as he still took care of Voldemort for her, she was more than willing to help him achieve his goal.

Happy that her new Champion hadn't suddenly turned into a greedy bastard, Death snapped her fingers and a trunk suddenly appeared in front of her. "Here you go, Mr. Potter. The three properties have been sold to the Goblins, and the trunk now holds the 325 million galleons you received as payment."

"325 million?", Harry asked in awe. "The Goblins only offered me 175 million for all that land. How did you get so much?"

Death smiled smugly and replied, "You just have to know how to negotiate, Mr. Potter. Besides, with two gold mines and several deep reservoirs of oil that were found on the three properties, the land was easily worth more than 400 million. The Goblins were making a low offer, and they expected you to counter back. You never did. The price I got you was the best they could give at the moment."

Harry didn't know what to say. He got everything he wanted out of the deal, and Death didn't even hesitate to give it to him. Intellectually he knew he was getting paid for his services, but a part of him still felt like he was taking advantage of the situation.

"Thank you very much for your efforts, Lady Death. While I'm in the new world, would you like me to destroy the Hallows there as well?"

Death was slightly touched by his words, and smiled kindly at her Champion. "There is no need to do that, Mr. Potter. I rarely make the same mistake twice. The Hallows only exist in your world. In the new world you will go to, I never interacted with the Peverell brothers, so there is nothing for you to do."

"Wow. I wonder how my dad got through Hogwarts without his Invisibility cloak?"

"Oh, he still had the Cloak, Mr. Potter. It just wasn't as powerful as the one you have."

When she saw the confused expression on Harry's face, Death explained, "The cloak was actually created by the youngest Peverell brother. The man was a master at Enchantment, and I have no doubt he could have given Merlin a run for his money in that department. The cloak Ignotus created was quite powerful by itself, and it was more than capable of avoiding almost all forms of magical detection. It wasn't until I added my power to it, that I made it invisible to everything, even me."

Harry was happy that his dad still had the cloak, and offered Death a chance to fix his as well. "Since I already gave you the other two Hallows, if you want, you can take back your power from my cloak."

"Keep it," Death replied. "Without the other two Hallows it won't really affect me too much. Besides, after everything you've been through, you deserve it."

Harry grinned happily in response. He was glad he would be able to keep his advantage. "I'm ready when you are, ma'am. Just tell me what to do."

"That part is easy, Mr. Potter. All you have to do...is die."

Harry felt his eyes widen in surprise, but before he could do anything, Death's palm connected with his head and his world turned dark.