Chapter 3

Disclaimer ~ I do not own Katekyo or Harry Potter

The newly minted Skull De Mort gazed around him in contemplation. He almost expected Privet Drive to be different than he remembered, since he was in a different world after all, but it was the exact same as his own childhood prison. At least it would be easy to find his target.

Skull had decided to collect the eldest of his three new wards first, as he anticipated him to be the most difficult to convince. It's not like he could just walk into the room and say "Hey there! I'm you from another world where everything went to shit. I'm here to offer you a chance to avoid having that happen to you!" Skull internally scoffed. That conversation would go over smashingly. If it was Skull on the receiving end (and it kinda was) then he'd ask what kind of drugs the other guy was on.

He snapped out of his thoughts when he found himself standing in front of the house he was looking for. Number 4, Privet Drive. The home of the Dursley family and nearly sixteen year old Harry James Potter. Skull wondered how he could do this. If he knocked on the front door the Dursleys were liable to throw a fit. Not to mention it was three in the morning. Looks like he was breaking in. Now he just needed to figure out how he was going to climb up to the window.

Skull was halfway up the wall when the screaming started. He recognized those screams. Harry was having a nightmare. Skull had them frequently enough that he just accepted them as a fact of life and moved on. Even with frequent meditation and occlumency shields he often woke up in the middle of the night because of nightmares. Only Skull had stopped screaming from them a long time ago. Harry likely still hasn't gotten used to them. It only took a second for Skull to cast silencing wards around the room, as he really didn't need the Dursley's to interrupt this conversation.

A wandless alohomora had the window unlocked so Skull could open it and climb inside. He had just put his head through it when he noticed the screaming had stopped. He looked in the direction of the bed to see his younger self battle ready and pointing his wand at him.

Skull smiled gently but didn't move. If he knew himself (and he liked to think he did thank you very much) then any movement would cause Harry to hex him. That would just bring the ministry down on them and neither Skull or Harry needed that headache right now. Skull didn't have to worry about using magic as his was wandless but if Harry cast a spell using his wand, it wouldn't be good.

"May I at least come inside the rest of the way before you start interrogating me? The conversation I need to have with you will be a long one and I'd rather not be hanging out the window the whole time if that's alright," Skull requested still not making any moves. Harry stayed silent for a moment before he nodded. Skull pulled himself through the window the rest of the way, though his foot got caught on the windowsill so he more or less fell into the room. He groaned. That was so not how he wanted to make his first impression. Skull picked himself up and turned to look at Harry, who hadn't lowered his wand. Good boy. Moody would be proud of his constant vigilance.

"Don't worry. I am not working with or for Voldemort. I came here to talk and to offer you a chance to change your future," Skull said as he held up his hands in the universal surrender position.

"And how do I know you are telling the truth?" Harry demanded. "How do I know you won't kill me the second I lower my guard?"

Skull couldn't blame Harry for thinking those things. He knew Harry was still blaming himself for Sirius' death. He didn't want to make another stupid mistake. Skull wondered how he should explain things to the teen but intimately decided that the way to win Harry over would be complete honesty. They hated when they were kept in the dark so Skull would just wing it and tell him the truth.

"I'm you from a different world where everything went to shit," Skull said cheerfully with a wave. Harry stared at him with an incredulous expression.

"What kind of drugs are you on?" the teen asked. Skull smirked. That proved it. They were totally the same person.

"I knew you'd say that. What do I have to do to prove it to you?" Skull asked.

"Tell me something only I would know," Harry said. Skull smiled sadly.

"Your first attempt at cooking was when you were six years old. You tried to make an omelette but burnt your hand on the pan trying to pick out eggshells. When you were eight you got lost and met a nice American man that gave you a chocolate bar and escorted you home. You never saw him again and the chocolate bar was taken away from you by Petunia and given to Dudley. When you tried to protest you were locked in the cupboard. When you were eleven the Dursleys were forced to take you with them to the zoo because Mrs. Figg's leg was broken thanks to Dudley running her over with his dirt bike. While at the zoo you had a conversation with a Brazilian boa constrictor, that was bred in captivity. You vanished the glass which set loose the snake after Dudley shoved you to the ground," Skull would have went on but Harry had lowered his wand and was studying him closely.

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"It's like I said. We are the same person and our early lives were nearly identical until the final battle with Voldemort," Skull explained calmly. "Though you have another two years before that happens in this world."

"What happened?" Harry demanded.

"In your world or mine?" Skull asked in response. Something must have shown through his calm mask because Harry tensed slightly.

"Both," he answered. Skull sighed.

"We'll start with your future since the beginning is still the same as mine," Skull stated. He waited until Harry nodded at him before he began his tale.

"Dumbledore comes to collect you from the Dursleys. He needs you to convince a man, Horance Slughorn, to return to Hogwarts as a teacher. It worked and Slughorn came to teach potions while Snape taught defense. The year itself went relatively normal. We were obsessed with Malfoy, thinking he had joined the death eaters and trying to gather proof. We started having extra lessons with Dumbledore, if it could be called that. Instead of teaching us anything, he just showed us memories. Memories that involved Tom Riddle. Dumbledore needed you to convince Slughorn to give you a memory. One that wasn't modified like the one Dumbledore had. You got the memory and it led to the reveal of Horcruxes. A horcrux is a piece of a person's soul stored into an object, making that person immortal," Skull paused at the stunned expression Harry had.

"You can't mean? Voldemort has a horcrux?" Harry asked.

"More than one. He has seven in total," Skull said with a grimace. Seeing the wide-eyed expression of horror on Harry's face, Skull hurried to continue. "Don't worry! I know where they all are and how to destroy them. That's the easy part. We spent our entire seventh year tracking down the horcruxes to destroy them. Thing is, each time we destroyed one, Voldemort could feel it. He grew panicked and decided it was time to launch his attack. He gathered his army and moved to attack Hogwarts. This was known as the Final Battle," Skull paused and took a breath. Seventeen years later and he could still recall the battle with clarity. Well...less he could recall the battle and more he could recall the deaths. Hard to forget something if you see it most nights in your nightmares.

"You don't have to tell me," Harry told him. Skull shook his head.

"You need to know this. I always hated it when people left out important information and I know it's a trait you have as well," Skull said with a wry grin. "It's just that the final battle has some bad memories for me. I'm just gonna come straight out and say it. We fight with Voldemort...and we die. We believe our death was the only way to destroy the final horcrux. The one in your scar," Skull said calmly.

"What?" Harry's voice was barely able to be heard.

"The night Voldemort killed our parents. Voldemort asked Mum to step aside three times. Three times she refused before he killed her. Her refusal and sacrifice invoked a very powerful ancient magic that rebounded the killing curse onto the castor," Skull explained.

"That doesn't explain how…" Harry gestured to the scar on his forehead.

"To make a horcrux a death is needed. More specifically, a murder. Once you've killed someone, you rip half of your soul and place it into an object. Voldemort's soul was already unstable from how many horcruxes he made that when the curse rebounded and killed him, another piece broke off. The soul fragment embedded itself in the closet living being as a survival mechanism. You," Skull explained calmly. The two of them sat in silence while Harry absorbed that information.

"Why has nobody ever told me before? Surely someone had to have known," Harry asked, looking at Skull with such a broken expression. Skull didn't hesitate to come forward and wrap the younger boy in a hug. Harry tensed but otherwise didn't move. Skull kept his grip loose in case Harry decided to pull away but instead he leaned into the hug, hesitantly wrapping his arms around Skull and hiding his head into his chest.

"Someone did know. Someone who let his power go to his head to the point where he believed that only his plans would work and ignored anything someone suggested to prove otherwise. Someone who would do anything to ensure his plans worked, even if it involved manipulating the life of a child," Skull said bitterly. "Dumbledore was a fool. There were so many things he had to the power to change or prevent, but instead he abused that power for the greater good," Skull sneered the last bit in a way that Snape would have been proud of.

"Dumbledore? But why would he-?" Harry questioned breaking away from the hug to stare at Skull with wide eyes.

"Did you know that in the event Sirius couldn't raise us if James and Lily died, there was a whole list of people we were to go with? And that their wills specifically stated we were not to live with the Dursleys at all?" Skull asked. Harry shook his head, stunned, so Skull continued. "Dumbledore had their wills sealed less than an hour after their death. He deliberately placed us in this house so he could swoop in and be the charming grandfather figure to you. He wanted to mold you into something that fit his plan, and to do that you had to be ignorant of everything magical. Not only that, but everything you went through during the school year? The philosopher's stone? Dumbledore chose to put it in a castle full of children and the only protection it had was something three eleven year olds could get through. He should have left the stone with the Flamel's. They protected it for over 600 years, I'm sure that they could easily keep Voldemort away from it. The chamber of secrets? Why didn't he order fully mature mandrakes from someone, instead of letting everyone who was petrified wait on the ones in the greenhouse? Third year? Sirius never should have went to prison. Dumbledore, as chief warlock, had the power to make sure everyone got a trial. He knew Sirius was innocent but pushed for him to be thrown in Azkaban anyway. Why? Because he needed you weak and dependent on him. The triwizard tournament? Contestants or their magical guardian had the power to withdraw that person within the first week of their names being drawn, something Dumbeldore would have been required to know as headmaster of the school. Fifth year with Umbridge? There was no way he didn't know about the blood quills. There were hundreds of students that had detention with that bitch. Some of them from pure blood families. And yet not a word of it was ever told to parents or the Aurors? That's suspicious because Susan Bones is the niece of the head of the DMLE and would know exactly what a blood quill is and that it is a forbidden dark artifact. And speaking of the ministry, that prophecy you went to get? Trelawny told it to Dumbeldore. He heard every word. But he never told you about it because that would have made you want to train to stay alive. Dumbledore wanted you to be his perfect little pawn to the point where instead of doing things that would have made it so no children had to fight, he arranged it to where the main people fighting Voldemort's army were students. And because Dumbleldore had his dumbass plan, it resulted in the death of so many of those students, including everyone that I cared about!" Skull quieted immediately upon realizing what he had just said. He didn't mean to tell Harry that.

"What do you mean everyone died?!" Harry yelled in horror. Skull winced.

"That was not how I planned to tell you, I swear," Skull said with a deep sigh. He seemed to almost deflate. All his anger at Dumbledore was gone for the moment, replaced with sorrow.

"What happened?" Harry asked softly. Skull almost thought about not telling the teen, but that wouldn't work. Harry deserved to know, even if Skull would rather not say anything. He may have moved on from that day but the memories still hurt.

"I mentioned that we died right?" At Harry's nod, Skull continued. "That's where our paths change. The afterlife for us takes place in King's Cross station. You meet Dumbledore there and talk for a bit. He offers you a choice. Return to the living or pass on. You chose to pass on, believing it to be the only way that the horcrux would die. Dumbledore had manipulated you to be a martyr after all. You were essentially raised to die. With your death, Voldemort won the war. I don't know what happened to the versions of your friends after your death, since it wasn't in the file, but I'm willing to bet it wasn't nice," Skull said. Harry seemed to look sick and Skull realized it was probably because of the teen finally realizing just how much of his life was controlled by Dumbledore. Hearing the man you looked up to basically set you up to die was a bitter feeling.

"What happened to you?" Harry asked, voice small and gaze firmly set on his hands. Skull gazed at his own hands and allowed himself to wander down memory lane.

"When I arrived at King's Cross, it wasn't Dumbeldore who was there to talk to me. It was Mum. At the time it was so surreal. Mum hugged me said she was proud of me. That Dad and Sirius missed me and were proud too. I started bawling right then and there. We talked for a bit after that before she also offered me the choice. Return to the living or join them in the afterlife. I wanted to go with her so badly that it hurt. But my friends needed me. I couldn't leave them behind to face Voldemort alone. And I knew that one day I would join them in the afterlife after I had died for the final time. Mum told me to make sure I didn't die until after I had lived a long, happy life. The last thing she said was that she loved me. Then I woke up in my body again and the fighting resumed. Remus, Tonks, Ginny, Fred, and George has died while I was dead. Tonks killed by Greyback and Remus from the wounds he got from killing Greyback in return. The Twins were caught up in an explosion and buried under the rubble. Ginny was crucio'd by Bellatrix until she ended up broken like Neville's parents. She didn't stay that way for long. She died when Molly was dueling Bellatrix and a stray Bombarda hit her. Next to fall was Neville, who had been bitten by Nagini and was killed by her venom. But that didn't stop him from taking out Nagini and several more Death Eater with the Sword of Gryffindor before his death. Luna...she died protecting me. I was in the middle of a fight with one death eater when another tried to curse me from behind. She pushed me out of the way but it hit her as a result. She was cut in two but she had a smile on her face from having saved me," Skull let a few tears fall at this point. He had genuinely loved Luna and her death was one of the hardest for him to accept. He took a deep breath to try and steady himself.

"Hermione died protecting three second years. She took a blasting curse that ripped out half her stomach to shield those kids and give them enough time to make it to the evacuation point. Ron was so enraged by her death that he took on eight Death Eaters at once. Took them all down too, but a ninth attacked from behind. He couldn't dodge all the way. The AK just barely grazed his arm but it was enough. Other than Luna, I didn't know about any of the other deaths until it was over. I had killed Voldemort and our side won the war, but it didn't feel like a victory," Skull chanced a glance at Harry. He was shaking and there were tears of his own landing on his hands. Skull sighed, drawing Harry's attention to him once more.

"I was a mess for the longest time. Barely ate. Barely slept. I was just going through the motions. But then I was given a purpose again. My godson Teddy. Remus and Tonks were his parents and they had asked me to be his godfather when he was born. He was only a few months old at this point and needed constant care and attention. He forced me to take care of myself as well as him, and I found myself moving on from the war, little by little. After a year I decided that I couldn't stay in Britain anymore. The memories were too painful. So I packed us up and we moved. Travelled around for awhile until ending up in America. I went by the name James Evans and opened a restaurant. Life became normal for a time. No expectations about being the Man-Who-Conquered or the Savior. I was just a single father and owner of a popular little restaurant in Ohio," Skull allowed himself a small grin at the memories of those years, though it was bittersweet.

"What happened? You wouldn't be here if something didn't happen," Harry asked. He had composed himself and was no longer crying, though he was still shaking slightly.

"Smart boy. You're right though," Skull said quietly. "Something did happen. It was Teddy's twelfth birthday and we went to the amusement park to celebrate. We were on our way home and stopped for ice cream. Decided to eat them on the way home. Except I forgot the napkins and had gone back to grab a few while Teddy waited on a bench. He didn't need to cross the street again only to return to where we were. The ice cream stand was only across the street so he would have been within my sight the entire time," here Skull let out a bitter laugh, startling Harry. "I should have just continued on home. Magic would have easily cleaned up any mess from the ice cream. There was no need for me to go back for napkins. If I hadn't, we wouldn't have been anywhere near the shooting. Teddy was caught in the crossfire of a drug cartel killing someone that was going to steal from them. Muggles were the reason my son bled out in my arms. I spent the next four years hunting down everyone involved with that cartel and killing them as my revenge. In my time, I finished off the last one two days ago. With Teddy gone and my revenge finished I had nothing tying me to the living anymore. I found myself back in England, in the department of ministries, and standing in front of the Veil of Death," Skull trailed off. It didn't take a genius to figure out what happened next.

"You died," Harry stated bluntly. Skull shrugged.

"In a way, yeah. I'm no longer Harry Potter. That man is dead. I've taken on a new name and role in life," Skull explained. He could easily see that Harry was curious so he continued. "Nice to meet you Harry Potter. My name is Skull De Mort, the Master of Death. My new job is to be Death's Bitch and do the jobs he asks of me. My first assignment is to collect three versions of Harry Potter from different worlds, save them from their crappy lives, and raise them in a world where Harry Potter never existed," Skull said cheerfully. He loved the confused and slightly disturbed look Harry was giving him.

"What?"

"When I passed through the Veil, I met Death himself. We talked and then he offered me a job as the Master of Death, as the mortals named it. I'm basically immortal and I have new death powers, though I haven't actually learned more than one of them because I literally just started this job. If Death needs me to, I will act as a proxy for him. Other than that, I get to live my life however I want. He's asked me to take a job for him. There are three Harry Potters in different worlds and I have been tasked to act as their guardian. You are the first one I've been sent to collect and you've already heard your story and what happens. I know myself and I know you hate not being told the important stuff so I figured that it was best I just told you everything," Skull explained. If he was leaving anything out, it wasn't intentional. He honestly didn't know much about the Death deal other than what was explained to him. Death promised to explain things more in depth once Skull and the kids had settled into their new lives.

"So you came here to take me away to another world, along with two other versions of myself, and give us a better life then we are currently living?" Harry summarized.

"Yep!" Skull chirped, popping the P. Harry rolled his eyes.

"So if I'm the first one you came to get, what about the other two?" Harry asked.

"Well...it's not pretty. Evelyn Lilian Potter is the female version of you. She's 11 and in a couple of days she'll get her Hogwarts letter. She was abandoned at the Dursleys after Dumbeldore declared her twin brother the boy-who-lived and Evelyn to be at best a hedgewitch. This wasn't true however. Evelyn's magic had exhausted itself forming a shield to reflect the killing curse. When she arrives at Hogwarts she will be ignored by her parents, who are teachers, and bullied by her brother for being sorted into Slytherin. She dies in her second year because of the basilisk venom and Fawkes not being able to come to her aid," Skull said.

"That's horrible," Harry whispered.

"That's not the worst one sadly. Harry James Potter, age 4. To put it simply, he's abused," Skull said. Harry's eyes widened in horror. "At the moment it's nothing worse than a couple of slaps and a lot of yelling. But when he is six he will have his first accidental magic. Vernon will take the beating too far and pushes Harry down the stairs. He dies from a broken neck," Skull explained. The only reason he was even remotely calm at this moment was because he had plans for the Dursley's of that world.

"How long are you allowed to stay here until we have to leave?" Harry asked. Skull smiled, both at the 'we' and at the expression the teen wore.

"As long as it takes to convince you to join me. Now what are you planning?" Skull asked eagerly. Harry told him his idea causing Skull to cackle. "That sounds chaotic. I'm in," Skull told him.

Welp. Longest chapter I've written in a long while. I probably could have made it longer but I decided to save that chunk and make it the next chapter. If I had added it to this chapter I probably wouldn't have added much detail to it, which is why I decided to make it the next one. I have a lot planned and it seemed kinda overkill to add it to this chapter with what it already has. That...and I was getting tired of this chapter and wanted to post it already. It's kinda an expansion of the first one but it'll also be the last time I explain everything again in that way. If you all have any questions you are more than welcomed to ask and I will do my best to answer.

Thank you to everyone who has Reviewed, Followed, and Favorited! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!