The Force's Balance
Harry Potter x Star Wars Crossover
Created: 10.12.19
Chapter 1: Into the Veil
I stared at the fluttering cloth over the ancient archway as I heard the unintelligible whispers I barely remembered. It seemed much the same as when I lost my godfather several years ago, and with a bit of excitement and trepidation I took a heavy breath as I prepared to step through it. Hoping that it led to the next great adventure as my friend Luna believed and hopefully would allow me to find said godfather, and I wasn't simply walking to my death as most others had insisted ever since they learned of my intentions.
To be honest, it didn't really matter to me.
Of course I wanted to live, and find Sirius wherever the veil took me and live a long life away from the fame of being the Man Who Conquered.
But I was also fine if this was simply the end, and allowed me to simply escape my fame and also the hidden curse of being the "Master of Death".
Yes, that's right ...by combining the Deathly Hallows in order to defeat Voldemort, I inexplicably became the Master of Death and gained something my former nemesis had always wanted but I considered an absolute curse ...immortality. I would probably never get to see my parents, or friends lost during the war, would never get to grow old with my loved ones, and seemingly never be able to father any children either.
Pretty shitty if you ask me.
I really tried after Tom was killed to settle down with Ginny Weasley and start a family, but came to learn that I physically couldn't produce semen, I could function just fine physically, and better than most if I do say so myself, but children would never be in my future. It was the beginning of the end for just about any long term relationship I could have had.
The other biggest drawback of the curse of being the Master of Death, was that I stopped aging shortly after uniting the Hollows, something I didn't really notice until several years after Voldemort's death as all my friends really started to show their advancing age while mine remained the same.
This was confirmed when I actually met Death after stupidly trying to take on the Lestrange brothers in Prague single handedly five years after the war ended. Starting to believe all the hype surrounding me for the years following the war, I stupidly tried going after the few remaining Death Eaters who escaped the Battle of Hogwarts with nothing more than my unbeatable wand and all the naivety of my youth.
Turns out, the best wand in the world won't help you from taking a killing curse in the back while fighting the other brother, and all of a sudden I was back at the same "Kings Cross" version of Death's train station, only this time instead of my dead manipulative Headmaster, I was met by a formless being of untold power and creepiness that introduced themselves as Death. After learning of my new curse, and being told all the wonderful news of my lack of aging and sterility, I was allowed to go back, and "woke up" still in the same alley only seconds later.
Incredibly pissed off at this point, and my two targets running off only a short bit ahead of me, it wasn't difficult to send that dark cutting curse of the Half Blood Prince bastard into their backs stopping their retreat before finishing the job moments later after seeing the absolute shock on their faces from me again surviving the "unsurvivable" killing curse.
At that point, my life took a definite turn for the worse as I retreated to Grimmauld Place and pretty much isolated myself for the next year as I researched and studied everything I could about the Deathly Hallows, death in general, rituals, and eventually alternate realities or worlds which led me to the now standing in front of the veil down below the Ministry of Magic.
All my relationships suffered, not that my fame allowed me to have normal interactions with most of the Wizarding World, but learning of my new curse put a real strain on the few people I still had any connection with. Ron and Hermione were welcoming their new son, and had less time for their continuously morose former friend. Ginny had rather suspiciously quickly gotten over the end of our relationship, and was soon found to be pregnant and the new Lady Longbottom within only two months ...not that I really blamed either of them or cared much at that point in my downward spiral.
My biggest obstacle and regret at that point was my abysmal magical knowledge, and I realized that I had coasted off of Hermione for my entire magical education and had no good study habits or knowledge of really anything related to magic and that was probably the most depressing. I remember my excitement when Hagrid came and first delivered my Hogwarts' letter, and the desire to immerse myself in this new life in order to get away from my previous one with the Dursleys. Unfortunately, I also remembered first discovering my fame and how overwhelmed I was and how much additional pressure and expectations that were suddenly put upon me, that I obviously didn't handle well.
I knew of so many wizards and witches that excelled in different areas at early points in their lives, while I just coasted along doing the barest minimum and relying on luck and the help of others just to survive. Dumbledore and Riddle both knew more magic than most skilled adults before they were even out of school, the Marauders were able to accomplish amazing things during their school years as well, and even though Snape was an utter arse he was still insanely ahead of me now when only a sixth year. I only needed to look at Hermione to see an even better and closer example to accomplishing great things at a young age ...yet I did none of those things.
Yes, I was able to defeat Voldemort, more out of luck than any skill that I did. And ever since then, I have continued to waste time coasting on my fame, luck, and Hermione's knowledge and that needed to stop.
So, I actually studied ...and even learned that I liked to learn and study magic of all different kinds, but just couldn't stand my current situation. I couldn't leave my house without being hounded by the press, couldn't show up anywhere (even other countries) without the whole wizarding world knowing about it and it was driving me fucking crazy.
So, in my typical reckless way, I decided to leave the world behind in hopes that the veil would take me anywhere else. Luckily, I had learned just enough to plan a little before simply jumping into the unknown and didn't go running off with just my wand like in many previous instances.
I cleaned out my vaults at Gringotts (yes, vaults ...plural) and I was fucking rich beyond anything I even thought after first going to my trust vault with Hagrid. So, I went through Diagon Alley and cleaned out almost every store there, starting with the Trunk store. I then emptied Flourish & Blotts and then three other second-hand book stores, four junk shops, two apothecaries, and a Herbology glass house filled many trunks. I then took the rest of my galleons and had the goblins fill up trunks with precious metals and jewels, since I didn't expect the wizarding money to be of much use to me any longer.
A few more stops along the way to clean out the library at Grimmauld Place, the contents of my parents' house in Godrick's Hollow, and even the Room of Requirements and Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts. With everything I could hold stuffed in almost a hundred different trunks, all shrunken and stored inside a mokeskin pouch I wore around my neck I visited my friends one final time to say my goodbyes.
The visits to Ron and Hermione, Neville and Ginny, and Bill and Fleur went relatively well, mainly because I didn't want to cause the pregnant women any undue stress and only told them I was going travelling for a few years and not about the veil. They all worried needlessly about me travelling alone and to be careful, and I thought about coming clean to them all, but in the end couldn't do it and figured it was better to just off and disappear. Luna was the only one who knew the truth, mainly because she called me on it the moment I showed up at her house and I could never lie to the girl who always seemed to know what was going on, even if nobody believed her.
She got the deed to Grimmauld Place, the only thing I actually still owned on earth, and I got a goodbye shag from someone I always admired for her originallity and simple ability to just not give a fuck about what others thought. She wished me luck, and reminded me to not shut myself off to others or treat others like the Chessmaster Dumbledore treated me. I think she was the only person I was really going to miss when I left, but she promised me her life was taking care of her dad and continuing the good work of the Quibbler.
So, here I was ...standing in front of the veil in the Department of Mysteries, with maybe a single stolen item from the Room of Time added to my mokeskin pouch. What were they going to do ...arrest me? Fuck that!
I had the three Deathly Hallows on my person, hoping if the veil truly was just a gateway to death ...that I may survive the trip somehow.
With a final deep breath, I took the first and final step into and through the fluttering curtain that made up the veil hoping for a chance at a new life, or at least an escape from my old one!
