KEYnote: Harry obviously would have kept fighting her if the Killing Curse hadn't worked, but it did, and she wasn't ready for it, so he won :D
BEFORE READING: Consider watching the Tale of the Three Brothers read by Emma Watson from the Deathly Hallows. And here it is for people who just want to glance over it or read it for themselves. You may of course skip if you wish as I'm directly quoting:
The Tale of the Three Brothers
There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely winding road, at twilight. In time the brothers reached a river too traitorous to pass, but being taught in the magical arts the three brothers simply waved their wands and made a bridge.
Before they could cross the bridge however, they found their path blocked by a hooded figure, it was Death and he felt cheated, cheated because travelers would normally drown in the river. But Death was cunning, he pretended to congratulate the three brothers on their magic and said that they each had earnt a prize for having been clever enough to evade him.
The oldest asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence, so Death fashioned him one from and elder tree that stood near-by.
The second brother decided that he wanted to humiliate Death even further and asked for the power to recall loved ones from the grave, so Death plucked a stone from the river and offered it to him.
Finally, Death turned to the third brother, a humble man. He asked for something that would allow him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death, and so it was that Death reluctantly handed over his own cloak of invisibility.
The first brother travelled to a distant village, where with the elder wand in hand he killed a wizard with whom he had once quarreled. Drunk with the power that the elder wand had given him, he bragged over him invincibility. But that night another wizard stole the wand and slit the brother's throat for good measure and so Death took the first brother for his own.
The second brother journeyed to his home where he took the stone and turned it thrice in hand. To his delight, the girl who he had once hoped to marry before her untimely death, appeared before him. Yet soon she turned sad and cold for she did not belong in the mortal world. Driven mad with hopeless longing, the second brother killed himself to join her, and so Death took the second brother.
As for the third brother, Death searched for many years but was never able to find him. Only when he attained a great age did the youngest brother shed the cloak of invisibility and give it to his son. He then greeted Death as an old friend and went with him gladly, departing this life as equals.
Interlude - The Legacy of Naomi Peverell
Once upon a time there was born a beautiful baby girl to a fisherman in Wales. She was of course, a witch, with a particular gift for healing.
She also had an affinity for magical creatures.
Some say she was the greatest magic user of her age, others might say in history, and others still would fear ever admitting it.
This witch's name was Morgana, the Magical Creatures dubbed her Morgan Le Fey.
She was great as she was wicked, as good as she was evil.
Some stories claim that it was Arthur who made her this way, but the views of mundane humans who demonize magic are rarely to be trusted.
As a fisherman's daughter, Morgana's life was worth little, especially as her mother passed away. Her father would voyage out onto the sea and leave her behind to do as she will.
She was extraordinarily powerful and her first friends were animals, magical and mundane alike. Her power was such that her aging slowed and her carefree days passed above hills and below them.
It would be pointless to name her age, only the thing that can be said with certainty was that she was born human but she was not raised as one.
The first wizard she ever met was a man named Merlin. He was strange to her and she delighted in playing tricks on him.
Inevitably, he cursed her, binding her magic deep inside of her.
A few hundred years later, she had mostly escaped that curse by transferring it to the Earth.
But Morgana's first true connection with another human being was with a shy and intelligent boy who was known as Ignotus Peverell.
She disguised herself as a younger woman having never wanted another person the way she wanted him. She was content to wait out the years at his side until he was old enough to be her partner.
He had two older brothers, both bold and talented in the magical arts, but Ignotus, Iggy, as Morgana called him was different.
He was kind.
He showed her human kindness and she showed him the world, showed him the secret places of magic, the dwellings of strange beings that lived happily and independently of the human world.
They the closest of friends, but Ignotus's brothers deeply mistrusted Morgana. For they saw that she was powerful in ways they were not and they warned Ignotus to stay away from the witch with raven hair and wild magic.
Naturally, Iggy ignored them, promising to love Morgana for all of time, yet without his oldest brother's blessing, they could not be lawfully wed.
One day, Ignotus's eldest brother, Antioch Peverell, lost a duel.
Had Morgana not been there, he would have surely died of his wounds.
Ignotus asked once more for permission to marry the woman he loved, and once more Antioch Peverell denied them. Antioch, for all his faults tried to explain to his youngest brother of a dormant evil he saw in the fey witch.
But Ignotus refused to believe and accused him of being jealous of Morgana's powers.
As it turned out, Ignotus was not wrong.
Yet neither was Antioch.
The middle brother, Cadmus Peverell, was that evening marrying a woman who was lovely as she was kind. Despite her not being a witch, Antioch had given his blessing to Cadmus and his non-magical bride.
Morgana, filled with rage and despair of being denied yet again the man she loved, despising even more that Ignotus would not choose her over his brothers, took her vengeance that very day.
While Antioch and Ignotus argued, Morgana explored the Peverell Estate and found Cadmus's bride preparing for her wedding.
Morgana slew her.
It was the first time she killed, but not the last.
When Ignotus discovered Morgana's treachery, he joined Antioch, and the three brothers expelled her from the country.
The evil in Morgana's heart was revealed to all.
For many years, no one saw Morgana, or at least no one lived to speak of it. Yet rumours spoke of a Sorceress in Ireland who would kill humans on behalf of magical creatures.
She was a contradiction, a healer as much as she was a murderer.
But after several years had passed, she returned to Wales and searched for the Peverell Brothers. No longer boys but mature men, Ignotus met with her in secret.
Ignotus wanted to know if Morgana had grown remorseful over the years, but what he discovered instead was that the woman appeared not to have aged and had grown ever more powerful.
He was glad then, that his Antioch had forbidden their marriage, for as beautiful as Morgana was, Ignotus now saw the evil beneath. He mourned for the gentle girl of their childhood who had only ever healed, trying to save life, not take it.
Morgana, in turn, found Ignotus Peverell not the man of her memories. Yes, he was humble and intelligent, but he was also weak and fearful. He disgusted her, but still, she found herself in need of his help.
The curse Merlin had laid upon her, that she in turn had placed on the Earth had mutated to something beyond imagining.
Underhill was disappearing.
"I need your help, Iggy?"
Ignotus spoke cautiously, "Why should I help you, Morgana? You attacked my family. Cadmus still mourns his bride; he has never even thought of another. You ruined his life."
Morgana did not seem to care, intent on her own purposes, she said, "The pixies are dying."
Ignotus raised his brows, "Why?"
"Humans," she snarled in a decidedly inhuman manner.
"I do n-"
"It will not stop with them, Iggy! The goblins, the centaurs, the mers, the dragons, the giants," she said emphatically, "All the magical creatures will one day be in the gravest of danger."
Ignotus did not want to help her, but he had other friends and they weren't all human.
Also, for the girl Morgana had been, for his first friend, for his first love… he agreed to help her.
Only he didn't know what he was signing up for.
Making a deal with her and the goblins was nothing, even if he was disturbed with how many pixies gave their lives to fill the space with dust.
But when Morgana made him write that note…
"Morgana, no, I can't do this to anyone, much less my own descendants."
"But you will condemn the entire magical world? If the magical creatures die off, who do you think will be next? What will become of Earth without magic?"
Against Ignotus's better judgement, he conceded to Morgana's wishes.
He never learned that the pixies were dying because she was killing them.
Ignotus never saw Morgana again after writing that note, but he feared her and feared for his family.
When he met Death, he was not nearly as afraid of him as he was of Morgana Le Fey, and the Invisibility Cloak hid him and descendants from the Morrigan long after he was gone.
Morgana searched the lands desperately for him, and when she could not find him, she went to others, but for the first time in her long life, she felt time ticking away from her.
Underhill was receding from the world, the wellsprings running dry, the singing of the ley lines falling quiet.
Merlin's curse was breaking the world, and she knew it to be her fault.
She tried to undo the damage, but her magic was no longer that of a regular witch or wizard and only a user of that type of magic could undo Merlin's curse. All she could do was search for help from a world that had learned to despise and fear her for neither she nor the magical creatures could undo the damage themselves.
But Morgana never understood humans. Her failsafe was being guarded by the goblins but neither she nor the magical creatures could find the human that could reverse the curse.
And when the doors to Underhill began to close, Morgana chose to stay in the otherworld rather than remain in a world that would one day lose magic entirely.
Morgana left a trail to find her in Underhill, hidden letters and journals 'Written by Merlin' and pieces of a puzzle where even school children might find them.
The first to find Morgana locked in Underhill was a woman named Naomi Lupin.
She was powerful enough to enter and smart enough to undo Merlin's curse.
Morgana attempted and failed to hide her sneer at Naomi's visage.
The girl was ugly, scarred horribly with wispy hair.
She reminded Morgana of Ignotus. Weak and timid.
Yet like with Iggy, Naomi proved to have some will of her own.
"What happens if I free Underhill from Merlin's curse?"
Morgana's smile was real then, "Then the world will forever be changed, and the Earth will heal."
"What will happen to you?" the hideous witch asked.
"I will be a force of good in the world. I'm a healer, you see."
Naomi watched Morgana for a long moment with honey-gold eyes, and then Naomi ran.
Morgana was too slow to act, the girl using the metal star to slip back into reality.
Many more years passed.
Morgana watched from the sidelines as a Dark Lord discovered Naomi's findings, but he was too cowardly to even approach Underhill.
She was delighted when the Dark Lord died, Morgana didn't like Death, he had visited her quite a few times and she had turned him away at each visit, but someone as cowardly as Voldemort deserved to die. Voldemort had a terrible habit of making deals with magical creatures and then betraying them, that was not something she would ever forgive.
So, it was to her great surprise when she discovered his killer.
One of Ignotus's descendants.
That Ignotus had taken a lover or wife after having fallen in love with Morgana, enraged her. After helping her with setting up their failsafe, Ignotus had run from her, betrayed her in his absence. Therefore, it was with no small amount of delight that she tore Harry Potter's soul in half.
She made certain to give Henry Peverell an equally sorrowful life as his soul's counterpart had had.
And when Henry Peverell had a son with Naomi Lupin, the little bitch who had found and discarded Morgana, she had torn Teddy Peverell's soul in half too.
In Harry Potter, she had hurt Ignotus, and in Teddy Peverell, she had hurt Naomi who had also run from her, leaving her in Merlin's prison.
Then Morgana waited, moving her pieces; the goblins, the centaurs, and the wizards. All her puppets danced for her.
Her pretty little dancing dolls.
She rolled her eyes at how alike the descendant was to Ignotus, she had to throw everything at the man to get him to come to her.
Until Harry Peverell stood before her and she knew she would be free.
Or so she thought.
She saw herself flake away in incomprehension, with no clue as to where she had gone wrong.
Her world that had been filled with rich darkness, playful spirits, and deep ever breathing magic, faded into white. It hurt her eyes. She heard the sea but the music of Underhill that had sustained her receded with the shore. Leaving her cold and empty.
Powerless.
Death smiled as he came before her, great black wings thrown wide, "Little Morrigan, we meet again, but there is no way back for you this time. The game is over. And as always, I have won."
Morgana growled, "No! I saved Earth!"
"No, child, you cursed it."
"That was Merlin!"
He chuckled, "You made a mistake, many, in fact, but then, many do."
"I am not human!" she bellowed, whatever her birth, she was more than that now.
Death smiled down at her, "But you have died as one. No better than any other, as mortal as the rest."
"I am the Morrigan."
"And I am Death."
A figure appeared at Death's side.
Morgana sneered, "You ugly whore."
Naomi smiled at her, stretching her scars on her ruined face, "And yet my husband found me more beautiful than you."
"What is she doing here!?" Morgana demanded, "This is my afterlife!"
"She's my friend," Death said, wrapping a wing around the little woman, "And as you have played with her husband and son's souls; I think it only fair that she be allowed to make certain choices for yours."
"You can't do that," Morgana said, stepping back into the pale surf, white seafoam licking at her ankles.
Death laughed, "And you weren't supposed to inhabit magic. You acted above your station, Morgana. Woe it be to the humans who play with fate."
Naomi smiled, "My legacy will go on, my son will be what you might have been, a link between the human and non-human worlds, but unlike you, he is good, he is whole, and he knows what true love is. The Peverell name will be a glory upon our world, despite you."
"I killed you!" Morgana interjected, "I led that slimy Oath Breaker to your home, and I burned away all that was yours. Your son and your widower have nothing left of you. You have no legacy."
"My legacy lives on with my son and all that know him and who will benefit from his generosity. My legacy breathes in the change my husband wrought upon the world for love of me," Naomi said.
Morgana snarled, "You are nothing. I am the fire that started the world burning."
Naomi laughed, and the sound was beautiful even to Morgana, "I am the rain that fed the soil which grew the forest."
The Morrigan was left alone in the void without magic, fated to never be reborn.
Noami Peverell took Death's hand and they departed as equals.
AN: No, this doesn't count as the second chapter I promised you, I just needed this to stand on its own, which means you get another chapter, and another half chapter with the extended epilogue. If you are enjoying, please considering leaving a review? How do you feel about all the answers sans the ending? What do you think of the plot and characters? Thank you to everyone who has reviewed my story!