Harry Potter meets Death
By Anorc.
Ch 2. The Game's the thing, or is it?
Harry thought for moment. He'd walked all that way through a forest full of Dementors, with the stone and the cloak, and the wand, well that was clearly Professor Dubledores' wand. Which was the Elder wand, and Death didn't call it Death's wand, so it probably wasn't. Harry felt a moments pleasure. Professor Dumbledore would be proud of him for finding out the Hallows weren't death's personal possessions.
"I already have the Stone and the Cloak" said Harry "So I'll have the wand, thanks. I choose the middle door."
"You can't" hissed Death "Choose the door that's already open"
"If I had all three" asked Harry "Would I be master of death?"
"I have no master" hissed Death rather belligerently.
"Sorry" Harry apologised immediately. "It's just a silly superstition about the deathly hallows."
"The what?" asked Death, putting it's skeletal hands on it's hips.
"People call the wand, the cloak and the stone the deathly hallows." said Harry "Rumoured to have been created by death. Erm you."
Death shook their bony, eyeless head.
"Right" said Harry "Sorry, it's just I had to choose between searching for Hallows and Horcruxes and I um chose Horcruxes"
"What" hissed Death "IS a horcrux?"
Harry had to take a breath, and felt strangely elated.
"Horcruxes" said Harry "are where someone tears their soul into pieces and puts the pieces into things. It protects the caster from death, as they can't die if a Horcrux survives."
"There is no such thing!" hissed Death, one bony hand raised "I am death, I take all in the end." they said, curing their hand into a claw and pulling downward.
"I um had a horcux in my scar. Vol - Tom Marvolo Riddle made so many his soul accidentally ripped when he murdered my mother." explained Harry.
Death tilted their skull slightly "You contained one of these things, made to hide from me?" asked Death.
"Yeah" agreed Harry. "I hope that the killing curse took destroyed it. Until they're all destroyed he can't die."
"Humans die" said Death surely. "Tom Marvolo Riddle is … not far from where you died. He is seventy-one years old." said Death, it's skeletal left hand clutching around an hourglass that had appeared silently. Death eyed the sand in the hourglass with an empty eye-socket. "Plenty of sand left." With that, death released the hourglass, which just… wasn't there anymore.
"I've got a bit of Tom Riddle's soul stuck in my head" said Harry surely.
Death waved both of their skeletal hands apart, and next to Harry appeared a black fog in the vague shape of Lord Voldemort, in a cloak.
"What?" said the shadowy form of Voldemort, in a high-pitched voice, "This can't happen."
"You are telling the truth, Harry James Potter" hissed Death. "Tom Riddle is here, but… also there."
"And in a giant snake" Harry added blandly. Shadows and smoke Voldemort turned to Harry in surprise "Who are you?"
"Harry Potter. You killed my parents" said Harry blandly "Death didn't know about Horcruxes. Now they do."
Harry tried to ignore Tom Riddle, and looked over at Death "Death, send me back and I'll get the rest of Tom Riddle and send him to you?"
Tom Riddle, meanwhile had ducked across the room and reached into the open doorway, and grabbed the elder wand. Harry wasn't sure what happened next, exactly, but Tom Riddle lit up, covered in bluish sparks, screaming in pain. Harry watched, not really wanting to do anything about it.
"Is that going to kill him?" asked Harry.
Death shook their head.
"Well, do we have a deal?" asked Harry "If I'd tried to grab it, it would have killed me, right?"
Death nodded.
"I've got the other two already, so I'll stick with the right door" said Harry confidently. Tom Riddles' screaming was starting to really get on his nerves anyway.
Death waved their skeletal hand and the rightmost door opened, revealing a black pebble floating in midair.
Harry smiled slightly "Well, one resurrection stone it is" said Harry. Death's head looked over and their skeletal hand rose "That should not be there" hissed Death, pointing at the stone. "That should be the cloak. I put it there."
"I already had both" said Harry confidently "Once I get the wand, I'm master of death, aren't I?"
"I have no master" said Death "And You will never become mine."
"Uh" said Harry "Can I um, go back now?"
You died" said Death. "You cannot go back, Harry Potter."
Harry clenched his hands into fists and resisted the urge to scream along with Tom Riddle.
"I'm going back" said Harry.
"No, you lost" hissed Death "The cloak is the winning piece."
Harry blinked "You wanted me to win?"
"I want Tom Marvolo Riddle Dead" said Death. "I will not be defied."
"Except you are, and can't see Horcruxes" said Harry, with an intuitive leap, hoping he was right, not like the time he'd accused Snape of wanting to steal the Philosophers stone.
"I cannot send you back" said Death "Time has moved on. I will drop you a little later and you will kill Tom Marvolo Riddle. From there on, you will… " Death held out a hand and an hourglass appeared.
Harry sighed. Voldemort had a perfectly ordinary hourglass, and Harry's well it was crooked, and had a second pipe from the bottom to the top. And, of course was nearly out of sand. And…. There was sand flowing uphill. Death held it to one eye-socket. "This is not right" hissed Death.
Harry caught the glint of a silvery machine from inside his hourglass.
"Can I have a look?" asked Harry, and Death lowered the hourglass and Harry walked over and squinted into the crooked, hazy glassware. The basic hourglass was, well it had sand and it went down. But the second glass pipe was stuck on the side, and inside the pipe a tiny silver machine spun, pushing sand uphill. Harry leaned right in to peer at it, his nose nearly touching the hourglass, which felt cold near his face. The tiny silvery machine was…. one of the weird little silver machines from Professor Dumbledore's' desk, Harry was sure of it. Harry felt a moments' sadness as the loss of the weird old headmaster, tempered by a warm feeling. Professor Dumbledore had set up something to push sand uphill, all Harry's life.
"I've got a little time left" said Harry optimistically.
"That thing should not exist!" protested Death, shaking Harry's hourglass around in agitation.
"Well, pop me back, and I"ll make sure Tom Marvolo Riddle, all of him comes to you. I'll try for today, but I might take a few days."
"The battle will rage for a day" said Death.
"You can see the future?" asked Harry.
"All possible futures" hissed Death.
Harry felt a tiny kernel of … hope blossom in his chest.
"Is there a future where Ginny and I get back together?" asked Harry.
"Not forever" said Death.
Harry rolled his eyes "Course not. People die, I understand that." said Harry.
"Not for more than twenty years" said Death.
"I die in twenty years?" asked Harry. Death shook their head.
"Ginny dies in twenty years?" asked Harry, feeling a cold trickle of panic down his back,
Death shook their head.
"No, wouldn't happen" said Harry "We'd be together forever."
Death shook their head.
"You won't tell me, will you?" asked Harry. Death shook their head "I cannot understand the lives of you humans" they hissed "I understand that you are born, and you die. The rest is a mystery to me."
"Well, I'm not going back to a future where Ginny and I break up" said Harry surely "You fix that, and I'll find Tom Riddles' Horcruxes and destroy them for you."
Death laughed. It was an eerie sound, like Snape laughing, only worse. "You would sell me water in a sieve. You must destroy the Horcruxes, and I will let you back to do that. Your life is no concern of mine."
"My Life" said Harry angrily "IS the whole BLOODY POINT OF BEING ALIVE!"
Death shook their head, and pointed to Tom Riddle's spectre, still covered in sparks and screaming, clutching at a false Elder wand. "That is your reason for existing. You kill Tom Riddle."
"YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW HORCRUXES WERE A THING TILL I TOLD YOU!" screamed Harry.
Death nodded "You have your task. I will send you back. You will destroy the horcruxes, and kill Tom Riddle. After that, your fate is your own to weave."
"But not with Ginny" said Harry sadly.
"Decades from your short life" said Death, "Isn't that enough?"
"No" said Harry, his eyes prickling with tears "It isn't"
"That's your problem" said Death. "I don't do life."
"Put… put me in a universe where I … where I'm with someone the whole rest of my life" said Harry.
"Abandoning Ginevra Weasley so soon" hissed Death.
"No point if it ends in tears, is there" said Harry.
"In my experience, all your lives end in tears" said Death "Well, except for people nobody liked."
Harry thought about the conversation, the weird conversation with Death. Who had no master. And … Harry would never be.
"Put me in a universe where I'm with the witch who becomes the master of death" said Harry, feeling like he'd just beaten Ron at chess, only better. Like beating Hermione at something other than Defence against the Dark arts.
Death shook their head "The preconditions cannot be satisfied."
"The what?" asked Harry.
"You cannot get there from where you were when you died." explained Death. Tom Riddles' spectre was starting to flake off little sooty chunks, Harry noticed.
"Why not?" asked Harry.
"You are not under a cursed contract" hissed Death "And besides, the witch is dead."
"I… there's me that are under cursed contracts?" asked Harry.
"Cursed marriage contracts" hissed Death "I see them often, the parties do tend to murder one another."
"That um, happen to me a lot, then?" asked Harry. Death nodded.
"So, I'm one of the lucky ones… of me?" asked Harry.
"From a certain point of view" hissed Death.
"I think I can live my life without a cursed contract" said Harry "Didn't like the last one."
Death shrugged.
"Back to life, close as possible to meeting someone who'd be with me for my whole life" said Harry.
Death hissed out "I'm death, not a dating service"
"You know about dating services?" asked Harry.
"Serial killers use them. Many deaths" hissed Death.
Harry sighed, the more he learnt about Death, the less he liked it. "You can't see Horcruxes. I get rid of Tom, and you help me out a little" said Harry.
"You get rid of all Horcruxes" said Death. "Not just Riddle."
"Fine" said Harry, with hardly a thought. Killing dark wizards had been his entire life so far, why not the rest of it.
Death clicked their bony fingers.
-==0==-
Harry woke, feeling cold, being shaken by someone that smelled of citrus. He opened his eyes and Narcissa Malfoy was bent over him, in the forest, at night.
"Where is my son?" she whispered.
"He's safe, if Hogwarts is safe" croaked Harry.
"The dark lord is attacking Hogwarts" hissed Narcissa, sounding irritated and looking annoyed with Harry.
"Better hope he dies soon" whispered Harry. "Seventh floor, by the tapestry of the trolls, disillusioned."
Narcissa Malfoy dropped Harry's head back into the leaf-mould with a thud.
"Potter is dead" said Narcissa Malfoy, standing and bowing to Voldemort. Harry tried to act dead.
"Untie the half-giant. It can carry Potter" said Voldemort in his high, piercing tone.
Harry thought about that. Tom Riddle from the diary had a perfectly normal voice. Well, and a nose… and Harry recalled a particularly traumatic memory, of Voldemort standing from the resurrection cauldron…. With no bits.
Hagrid, crying "Poor Harry" did pick Harry up and carry him to Hogwarts, Harry tried not to look around. There was a lot of smoke, from the smell.
"Your saviour failed" said Voldemort "Harry Potter lies dead by my hand. Oaf, drop Potter" he added.
Hagrid put Harry down on some stony rubble very gently. "Poor little bugger" sniffed Hagrid.
"Bow to me, you who have defied me, and no life will be lost" crowed Voldemort.
Harry stood up and drew the hawthorn wand "Tom, you forgot one thing" bluffed Harry.
"He's Alive!" someone yelled. The Death Eaters all took a step backwards. Harry tried not to snort.
"You can't be. I killed you" said Voldemort.
Harry glanced over at the crowd of Hogwarts students, friends and order members, all battered, bloody and dirty.
"Nagini, Kill Potter!" hissed Voldemort, and from the rubble, the massive green snake slithered out, and darted towards Harry, to be beheaded by a bloody Neville, holding the sword of Gryffindor.
There was a load, unearthly scream and a puff of black smoke, like a Horcrux being destroyed. Harry snapped off a disarming charm at Voldemort, who, with snake-like reflexes fired a green curse back at Harry. Harry winced. This was probably going to hurt…. Except the spells improbably enough collided, and the green curse ricocheted backwards, striking Voldemort in the head. He fell limply to the ground, staring sightlessly. Harry felt a moments elation, then was hit by a spell and all was darkness.
-==0==-
Harry woke, and inhaled. The smell of the Hogwarts infirmary. He opened his eyes and squinted. Blurry-out-of focus arched roof. Harry smiled, and tried to sit up, to faint from sudden pain.
Harry woke to Madam Pomfrey staring intently at him.
"Mister Potter" she said firmly, though her uniform was bloodstained.
"Madam Pomfrey. Is this my usual bed?" asked Harry.
"Of course" she said, with a slight smile "You are a very lucky young man."
"Lucky?" asked Harry.
"If Dolohov's curse had struck a little to the left, you'd have lost your heart." said Madam Pomfrey.
"Like Hermione" said Harry.
"Less lucky" said Madam Pomfrey seriously "You will need to regrow a lung, some intestine, and your liver."
"Oh" said Harry "Icky tasting potions?"
"Twenty at a time" said Madam Pomfrey. "I'll send word to your friends. The Aurors will let them in."
"Aurors?"
"Guarding Harry Potter, the man who conquered" said Madam Pomfrey "You defeated the dark lord."
"You're a death eater" croaked Harry.
"Slytherin, but not death eater" said Madam Pomfrey, frowning at Harry "Class of fifty-eight."
"Sorry" said Harry. "It's just…"
"There was a war, yes" said Madam Pomfrey, sarcastically "I have spent the last four days without sleep trying to save people. I did notice."
Harry drank disgusting potions, that seemed an endless succession, and finally fell asleep.
Harry woke up to the smell of disinfectant.
He opened his eyes, and sitting perched in chairs near him, were Ron and Hermione, half-asleep, both with cuts and tattered clothes. They looked terribly tired.
"He's awake" said Hermione excitedly, and Ron jolted and swore "Fuck!" Hermione elbowed him.
"Harry!" said Ron, his face breaking into a grin "You made it!"
"Close thing" croaked Harry.
"Madam Pomfrey mentioned that when she tried to keep us from waiting" said Hermione. "You took a nasty curse..."
"Dolohov's one" said Harry "She told me. How long till I can walk?"
"A week" admitted Hermione "you may need a cane."
"How did it go" asked Harry, and Ron and Hermione stopped smiling "we won" said Hermione, in a wobbly tone. "But people died"
"Fred died" said Ron, his eyes teary, and he took a breath "And Tonks and Remus died… and well… lots of the DA died, and lots of the Order."
"Oh" said Harry, and felt stupid.
"Hagrid said you got hit by a killing curse and got up" said Hermione.
"It's complicated" said Harry.
"Complicated?" asked Hermione "What did you do Harry?" she said, frowning and losing her smile.
"Voldemort left a horcrux in me" said Harry "When he killed my mother."
"And the Horcrux took the killing curse for you" finished Hermione.
"It wasn't quite that simple" croaked Harry. "I saw… someone."
"You saw someone?" asked Ron, confused.
"When… the curse hit me. It was like I died, but not quite" said Harry.
"Wow" said Hermione, pulling out her tiny beaded bag and rummaging.
"What are you doing?" asked Ron, leaning over Hermione fairly closely.
"Looking for quill and ink. This is important." said Hermione.
"I met…" said Harry, and he hesitated, as behind Ron and Hermione, the cloaked figure of death appeared and shook their head slowly. "Professor Dumbledore" he lied, and cursed his own idiocy. Now he'd have to make up a story, and he had no idea.
"You met… Professor Dumbledore?" asked Ron "But he's dead."
"I'm not sure he was real" said Harry.
"Oh, maybe you were hallucinating due to the lack of blood oxygen" said Hermione. Death faded away from sight.
"Where were you?" asked Ron, and the sight of Hermione, Ron and the irony of it nearly being the end of the year cinched it for Harry. "Kings cross station" said Harry.
"Oh wow" said Hermione, who'd found quill and ink and parchment and started scribbling.
"Did he like tell you anything useful?" asked Ron.
"Not really" said Harry.
"So, he didn't change then" said Ron.
"Was it real?" asked Hermione.
"Seemed real to me" said Harry "But I was lying nearly dead in the forbidden forest, so it might have just been in my head."
Years later, reading a history of the second war, Harry cringed. The potions hadn't helped Harry make a coherent story, and the official version, filled out over a week of potion-induced brain fog, well it was borderline stupid, but Death hadn't reappeared to intervene, so Harry assumed Death didn't mind the story.