AN: A few weeks ago, one of my followers asked me in a PM to write a story where Harry is paired with the Carrow twins Hestia and Flora. I can't remember which follower requested it unfortunately, too many conversations going on at once in PM's, but this is that story should said follow be reading this.
Death Reborn
Chapter 1
-Harry-
"Well this sucks." He said in forced calmness, managing to sum up all of what he and his two companions were experiencing as they floated through a limbo of darkness that they could somehow still see through.
"No argument here." his friend Flora Carrow piped up with a snarl.
"It could be worse." Hestia offered weakly and, when both he and Flora sent her a question look, continued "We could be stuck in here with Granger and the Weasleys." Causing him to shudder in disgust.
"Point taken," he admitted with another shudder "another point in favor of this…place is that it purged out the love potions that Ginny was dosing me with….uh I can't believe I ever thought I loved her.".
"Love potions do tend to do that," Flora said with a snort "but I thought she was smart enough to realize that if Harry was dosed up with love potions he wouldn't cheat on her…then again it was pretty clear that after Ron there were no more brain cells left for Weasley children.".
Sighing he leaned back onto the strange ether behind him and thought over what had been happening to him ever since the fall of Voldemort five years before. The day after the battle ended he had rushed over to Ginny and proposed to her in front of Hermione and the entire Weasley family, the red haired girl accepting immediately and he couldn't remember a time where he felt happier.
Over the next year he had worked with Kingsley Shacklebolt and the rest of the Ministry to try and rebuild the country that had fallen apart during the war, finding several families and individuals who had gone into hiding to escape either being forced to join the Death Eaters or being killed off by them. The first two he had met during one of the search missions were the twins Hestia and Flora Carrow who had fled when Voldemort took over the Ministry, knowing that their parents would try to force them to join the Death Eaters.
Many of the so called 'light' families had wanted the two executed for their parents crimes at Hogwarts but he spoke up for them, explaining that they couldn't just go around killing people for things their relatives did, even going as far as to point out that the government had simply put the Malfoy family on restrictions and a watch list due to their defection at the very end of the war. To compromise Kingsley had stated that he would have a trusted individual who could resist the Imperious frequently check in on the two twins and that they would wear runed tracking bracelets for two years as a 'parole' of sorts.
He had been the person Kingsley selected and Hermione and the Weasleys were less than pleased but knew that there wasn't anything they could do and had kept quiet. To the public's surprise though he had continued to frequently see the twins even after their two year 'parole' was over, even going so far as to let them rent out one of the apartments he had inherited from his parents in London. This had led to several arguments between him and Ginny, each one making him question why he was with her only for those feelings to vanish within the day, something he now realized was the potions they had been dosing him with.
For three years he had continued to grow closer with the twins, falling in love with them as they did with him again and again as the potions constantly made those feelings 'disappear' once he was given a fresh dose. It had all come to a head mere moments before though when Ginny had apparated into the girl's apartment along with Ron and Hermione while trying to look for him. The night before he had gone over to the apartment to spend time with the twins and have a movie marathon, falling asleep on the couch where he had ended up acting as the girl's pillow. This scene was what Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had walked into and upon seeing them, despite the fact that he and the twins were all fully clothes, they had immediately assumed the points had somehow been nullified and that I had slept with Hestia and Flora…he had woken up just in time to see the twin's dead eyes before he was hit with the Avada Kedavera. Now they were drifting aimlessly throughout limbo, wondering what would happen to them now that they had died.
"Greetings." a new voice called out causing him to spring into action as he put himself between the new voice and the girls, glaring at the new cloaked figure that chuckled at them.
"Who are you?" he demanded, trying to summon any magic to aide him only to feel nothing respond.
"Calm yourself Hadrian," the cloaked figure commanded, holding its hand up in a placating gesture "I mean neither you nor your twin loves any harm.". At that statement both he and the girls began blushing brightly before the clearly amused figure continued "As for who I am…well you would know me as Death." Ignoring their shocked gasp the now named Death continued "I do apologize for being late but I was held up making sure that several universes didn't unravel at the seams.".
"Unravel at the seams?" he asked on confusion "What the hell could do that?".
"Your death combined with a mistake made by my predecessor," Death explained "for you see I am not the first 'Death', nor will I be the last. I am not even the only Death currently in existence. The first 'Death' was a being formed out of the collective energy of the universe, solely for the purpose of managing the roads to the afterlives and its boundaries and, in rare cases, the fate of humanity as a whole. The first Death quickly realized that he couldn't manage the job himself with the amount of universes that spawned and began selecting a few worthy mortals and offering them the chance to become immortal beings that would help him do his duty in managing the various afterlives between universes. But like they were 'selected' they too can retire when they feel ready and select their replacements.".
"While that's interesting and all it doesn't explain why universe started unraveling." Flora interrupted.
"I apologize for my Sister Lord Death," Hestia said quickly "she…isn't in the best mood.".
"It's quite alright young ones," Death said with a shake of his head "and as for your question I simply needed to explain that so the answer would actually make sense. The mistake I spoke of was that my predecessor made the Deathly Hallows which were supposed to make one the 'Master of Death'. My predecessor had chosen not to take a mate before assuming his role and had gone insane due to loneliness over the centuries as he refused to rectify that problem or do anything besides reaping souls. I believe they had originally been intended as a way of selecting the next Death but instead had made your world unstable. As such he had been removed from his post and I had been appointed, part of my job had been to ensure that nobody ever gained all the Hallows which I did by trying to make them become 'lost' as often as possible. I failed, as I knew I eventually would, with you but when you died the raw power of 'Death's Master' dying ripped your universe apart completely and it took a great deal of effort to prevent the backlash from tearing apart the adjacent universes as well.".
"No," he breathed in horror "all those people…w-what happened to them?".
"While I was unable to save your universe's plain of life I was able to save the plain of death," Death explained "those living at the time simply were moved onto the afterlife, judged for their deeds, and sent to the appropriate eternity.".
Sighing in relief he then looked around "Then why are we in this 'limbo' place? If this is supposed to be a punishment for gaining the three Hallows then punish me, do whatever the Hell you want, just don't hurt Hestia or Flora.".
"Harry!" they protested, gripping his arms tightly as they did so.
"We aren't letting you go Harry," Flora declared firmly "we finally have a chance to be together here, even if it is just us, and I'm not giving it up.".
"You two would spend eternity in this void just for him?" Death asked them "To experience nothing? To never see another living soul besides the two you see before you? To feel nothing but this void around you?".
"Yes." Both twins answered without hesitation causing Death to smile.
"Good," the happy entity said with a nod "that's exactly what I wanted to hear. And as for your question this isn't punishment….this is just a waiting room.". Before he could ask Death what that had meant the entity had snapped its fingers and the inky black void had faded away into a comfortable study, filled with soft chairs, rows of books, and a rather impressive liquor cabinet. "I had an offer to make the three of you and didn't want you three to be judged and then have to sort through a few million souls to find you again," Death explained as the entity poured them each a glass of brandy "so I simply set you three down there for a bit.".
"But what's this offer you said you had for us?" he asked, hesitantly taking the drink as he had a pretty good idea what the 'offer' was.
"I wish to move on Hadrian," Death said with a weary sigh "I've been doing this job for a long time and I am tired. While I can still visit the spirits of my family on occasion I wish to spend more time with them and actually enjoy my afterlife. I was hoping that you, Hadrian, could be the new Death. Spend a few centuries managing the afterlives, be able to come home every 'night' to your two loves, be able to finally relax, even be able to visit the spirits of your parents and fallen friends when things are slow.".
"I…I don't know," he said hesitantly, the idea did sound good but he didn't know if that was what he wanted "I would really just want to have time to spend with Hestia and Flora instead of focusing on the job.".
Death spent a moment thinking before snapping his fingers as the entity moved over to a map table and beckoned them over, "These are the universes I manage," Death explained, gesturing to the collection of holographic spheres that rose up out of the table as they approached "this one is the afterlife of your world." Death pointed to a completely grey sphere. "My proposal is that I will send your souls into your counterparts of this world," at this Death pointed to an adjacent white sphere "in that world your counterparts are all on the brink of Death. Young Harry from falling off a cliff on his families vacation while the Carrow twins by accidentally being poisoned by someone trying to kill their parents. I will ensure your new bodies don't die and place your minds, souls, and magic into those new forms. I'll even add it in so that you three will have a betrothal contract waiting for you at Gringotts when you turn eleven.".
"Why would the Dursleys take me on vacation?" he asked Death in confusion, wondering if there was somehow a universe with good Dursleys…unless they had been the ones to throw him off said cliff.
"I knew I was forgetting something," Death grumbled before explaining "in that world Harry your parents never died and your sister is hailed as the Girl-Who-Lived. Your parents treat the both of you equally and having you grounded your sister but the general public worships the ground she walks on and basically ignores your existence while Dumbledore seeks to control her.". Hearing that he snarled, the fact that he had never met them didn't matter, the fact that they were from another reality didn't matter, they were still his family and he would fight tooth and nail to protect them wherever he could.
"But how could you sneak in a contract if his parents are alive?" Flora asked in confusion "They would recognize that it hadn't been there before.".
"I'll create a new magical family," Death explained "the house of 'Thanatos' and say that I left a spell on the family Signet Ring that would select the new Lord should the bloodline die out. The goblins will accept that the ring chose Harry and he will be heralded as the new 'Lord Thanatos' who will have the ancient contract that had been long forgotten which will wed the Head of House Thanatos to twin daughters of House Carrow.".
"But how will we explain our new behavior to them if we suddenly act differently than we did before?" Hestia asked in confusion "We know nothing about this world.".
"I'll give you your counterpart's memories before you enter," Death assured them "and if you ever feel the need to you may tell the Potter family about being from another universe and the next Death. Anyway, do we have a deal?".
Looking at the ancient figure in the eye he stared in silence before giving a grin, "You got a deal." He said with a nod, shaking hands with the happily laughing entity of Death who then insisted of celebrating before they went to their new lives.
