Full Summary: Hemlock Potter died at age seventeen, war ridden and a little bit broken, and braver than many a man. What she did not expect, however, was to wake back up after dying. Especially as some kind of invisible spirit attached to a tacky green chair surrounded by insufferable immortals. The life of a God was filled with trials and tribulations, and Hemlock's were just beginning. Mo Yuan/Fem!Harry. Jade Emperor Lore. Chinese mythology heavy.

One Life, One Love.

Prologue

Bedtime Stories for Wayward Children

Hemlock Potter's P.O.V

Hemlock Potter died. In a glade, in a woods, on a long, dark terrible night, she died with a burst of green and Voldemort's awful cracking laughter thrashing out into the air like a whip.

Hemlock Potter died alone, cold, bruised and bleeding, and standing tall.

She died for Hermione and Ron, Teddy and Dobby, and all those who would come after them, for the children and House Elves, for the Draco's of the world who deserved a second chance to choose right this time, and for those who would never get the option.

Hemlock Potter died for friendship, both good and bad and ugly.

She had given it her all, blood, sweat, and tears, her soul to boot, and she, in her last very last moment, was not scared.

She did not cry.

She did not scream.

She stood tall.

Hemlock Potter died for what Tom Riddle could never understand.

Love.

And perhaps that was how her story was always going to end, and maybe she had cried all her tears free and screamed all her screams out back in Dumbledore's office.

Maybe the only thing left to do was to get the whole thing over and done with.

So it began with Lily's sacrifice given out of pure love, a mother's untainted affection for her child, so it would end with Hemlock's own devotion to protect those behind her in Hogwarts's castle, those who had fought for her, and even those who had fought against.

She wished no one ill will. She hoped they all lived long merry lives brimming with amusement and laugh-lines, sticky-fingered children and all the treacle tarts they could eat.

That was selfless sacrifice. To give if only to give.

It was alright, Hemlock told herself. It was going okay. One spell and it would all be over. She could finally sleep. She could see her mother and her father, and Remus and Tonks, and she could finally just… Be. No war. No running. No fighting. No loss. Sweet, gentle eternal slumber.

It felt just like going to sleep, Sirius's ghost had told her, and Hemlock could do with the rest.

So when the Killing Curse came, Hemlock did not flinch, she did not wince, and she did not shy away. She held on to her love, she held onto it with everything she had, and she held her head high, and she met death like an old friend.

She was going home.

Hemlock Potter died at age seventeen, war ridden and a little bit broken, and braver than many a man.

What she did not expect, however, was to wake back up after dying.

Bai Qian's P.O.V

Bai Qian adored being tucked into sleep by her mother when she was a child if only for the tales given in the dead of the night.

Her favourite had been about the Jade Emperor.

It was said long ago, her mother would sooth, that the Jade Emperor was once a mortal from a small village, and at birth he had emitted a wonderous green light that filled the entire kingdom. He was kind even from a young age, intelligent as he was wise, with a penchant for trouble. He devoted his entire childhood to helping those in need, the poor, the suffering, the deserted and single, the hungry and disabled, even those Immortals who had originally turned their noses up at the scrappy mortal.

The Jade Emperor had shown respect and love to both men and creatures, great and small, and had made sure everyone in his kingdom found peace and serenity.

He could also throw a mean punch, drink like a fish, and had once, according to tales, cursed so colourfully the sky itself had flushed red in embarrassment.

Of course, that was typically after a large battle against the forces of darkness, which often changed faces on the whims of Bai Qian's mother, and the excitability of the bouncy young Fox spirit Bai Qian.

The Jade Emperor had been mischievous as he was loving, and slowly but surely, he attained Golden Immortality, the highest of the high, and the Heavens, Hells and Mortal Realms had known true happiness.

And then he disappeared just like that.

A peach blossom caught in the wind.

Gone.

One day, the sun rose to the Jade Throne empty, and the portal to the mortal realm bleeding open, and no one knew where the Lord of King's had gone. For eons there had been chaos, anarchy, the like of which no mortal, man or beast had seen before, as Ghost tribe fought Celestial for the right to the throne.

Until, naturally, Emperor Dong Hua ascended to his own throne, and stitched together the tatters of what was left in the wake of the Jade Emperor's disappearance. As for the Jade Throne, in respect, in remembrance, in the belief that one day the Jade Emperor might return for it once more, it was left empty in the Celestial meeting hall, centre stage and glistening green, and vacant.

Always and forever a night more empty.

Emperor Dong Hua had too stepped down after a time, replaced by the Heavenly Lord Hao De, who still ruled the Heavens to that day until his grandson, Ye Hua, Bai Qian's own husband, would take up the mantle.

Much older, but not necessarily any the wiser, a wife and a mother, and still very much an excitable Fox Spirit, as A-Li was drifting off to sleep upon her lap, she stoked the soft downy hairs away from his brow and soothed.

"Once upon a time, when the world was new and quaking, there was born a very special child-"

And it was entirely Bai Qian's luck that just as she was passing on this tradition, one of the few she would from her own tribe, Fox's didn't usually gravitate towards traditions and habits, that Bai Zhen, her brother, who typically loved to drink and live a carefree life, came barrelling around a peach tree in their ancestral grove, sweaty and mud-marred and breathlessly nervous.

"There you are, I've been looking everywhere for you!"

Bai Qian bit back the retort of hushing him, if only to let A-Li sleep a little longer.

"What's gotten you all-"

Bai Zhen was already storming over, flapping his hand, beckoning her to get up and move.

"You're needed at the Celestial Temple."

The tone was severe, acute, and everything her brother normally wasn't, and immediately Bai Qian was plucking her slumbering kit up, propping him on her hip, and strolling for the exit to the Peach grove.

"Is it Ye Hua? He was meant to discuss with his father-"

Bai Zhen linked his arm through hers.

"Your husband is fine. It's the Jade Throne."

Bai Qian faltered, missed a step and nearly shouldered into a tree, saving herself, and the son she was carrying, last minute from a rather nasty bump.

"The Jade Throne? Has it been broken? Stolen? How could anyone steal it? It's kept under guard in the Celestial hall."

Bai Zhen smiled toothily.

"Oh, not stolen, dear sister. It's been occupied."

Bai Qian's mouth opened, closed, opened again, but before she could get a single coherent word out, question exactly what her brother meant, what wine he had been drinking to make such an outlandish claim, he was cloud jumping them to the Celestial temple.

Thoughts?

A.N: You do not have to have read or watched Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms to understand this fic, as most of the following chapters are going to be told through Hemlock's P.O.V, so we'll learn the plot/history/politics of that side of the fic as we go along.

This will also be pretty romance focused, heavy with the Mo Yuan/Fem!Harry, so if that isn't your thing, turn back now lol.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you liked this little teaser/Prologue, and I will hopefully see you all soon!