Harry hadn't been sure what to expect when he died but it certainly wasn't this. He was standing in the middle of a fancy lobby. Muzak played softly on hidden speakers. The carpet and walls were steel gray. Pencil cactuses grew in the corners like skeleton hands. The furniture was black leather, and every seat was taken. There were people sitting on couches, people standing up, people staring out the windows or wait-ing for the elevator. Nobody moved, or talked, or did much of anything. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see them all just fine, but if he focused on any one of them in particular, they started looking ... transparent. He could see right through their bodies.
He walked up the security guard's desk, where a man sat. He was tall and elegant, with chocolate-colored skin and bleached-blond hair shaved military style. He wore tortoiseshell shades and a silk Italian suit that matched his hair. A black rose was pinned to his lapel under a silver name tag that read, Charon.
"Um, excuse me" Harry began, wondering if he was even in the right place. "Could you please tell me where I am?"
"Don't worry, you're in the right place. This is the way to the underworld" Charon told him.
"So I am dead then."
"You are," He confirmed. "I must say you're handling it much than most do, it's quite refreshing. No screaming. No 'There must be a mistake, Mr. Charon. Just taking it all in stride. Now the I assume you don't have a coin for passage?"
"Er, no. At least, I don't think I do" Harry patted his pockets absently, finding them to be empty.
"Well that's very unfortunate then. I'm afraid you'll have to stay here indefinitely with the others. No coin, no passage. Those are the rules. What's your name again?" The man pulled out a clipboard and pen.
"Harry, Harry Potter." Charon's eyes widened when he said this.
"Are you now? Well then that changes everything. I've been told to send you along, no charge necessary."
"Really?" Harry couldn't imagine his name would still be considered important in the afterlife.
"Yes, yes come along then. No time to dawdle."
He escorted him into the elevator, which was already crowded with souls of the dead, each one holding a green boarding pass. Charon grabbed two spirits who were trying to get on and pushed them back into the lobby.
"Right. Now, no one get any ideas while I'm gone," he announced to the waiting room. "And if anyone moves the dial off my easy-listening station again, I'll make sure you're here for another thousand years. Understand?"
He shut the doors. He put a key card into a slot in the elevator panel and it started to descend.
Harry got a sudden dizzy feeling. They weren't going down anymore, but forward. The air turned misty. Spirits around him started changing shape. Their clothes flickered, turning into gray hooded robes. The floor of the elevator began swaying.
He blinked hard. When he opened my eyes, Charon's creamy Italian suit had been replaced by a long black robe. His tortoiseshell glasses were gone. Where his eyes should've been were empty sockets, totally dark, full of night and death and despair.
Harry blinked again, the elevator wasn't an elevator anymore. He was standing in a wooden barge. Charon was poling us across a dark, oily river, swirling with bones, dead fish, and other, strange things.
The shoreline of the Underworld came into view. Craggy rocks and black volcanic sand stretched inland about a hundred yards to the base of a high stone wall, which marched off in either direction as far as the eye could see. A sound came from somewhere nearby in the green gloom, echoing off the stones-the howl of a large animal.
"Go right along, Mr. Potter. Right through the EZ DEATH line up ahead. The boss will be expecting you." Harry gulped, feeling a sense of dread.
The bottom of our boat slid onto the black sand. The dead began to disembark. A woman holding a little girl's hand. An old man and an old woman hobbling along arm in arm. A boy, shuffling silently along in his gray robe. Harry followed the rest of the spirits off the barge.
The entrance to the Underworld looked almost like airport security. There were three separate entrances under one huge black archway that said YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS. Each entrance had a pass-through metal detector with security cameras mounted on top. Beyond this were tollbooths manned by black-robed ghouls like Charon.
Once Harry made it to the EZ DEATH line, one of the black robes ghouls escorted him the rest of the way.
First he walked through a field as big as a quidditch pitch, it was filled with whispering masses of people, just milling around in the shadows, waiting. The black grass had been trampled by eons of dead feet. A warm, moist wind blew like the breath of a swamp.
Following the line of new arrivals that snaked from the main gates toward a black- tented pavilion with a banner that read:
JUDGMENTS FOR ELYSIUM AND ETERNAL DAMNATION
Welcome, Newly Deceased!
Out the back of the tent came two much smaller lines.
To the left, spirits flanked by security ghouls were marched down a rocky path, which glowed and smoked in the distance, a vast, cracked wasteland with rivers of lava and minefields and miles of barbed wire separating the different torture areas. Even from far away, Harry could see people being chased by strange monster ours beasts, burned at the stake, forced to run naked through cactus patches or worse.
The line coming from the right side of the judgment pavilion was much better. This one led down toward a small valley surrounded by walls-a gated community, which seemed to be the only happy part of the Underworld. Beyond the security gate were neighborhoods of beautiful houses from every time period in history, Roman villas and medieval castles and Victorian mansions. Silver and gold flowers bloomed on the lawns. The grass rippled in rainbow colors.
The ghoul escorted Harry inside one of the tents where he was surprised to find a small, tidy office. "Thanatos will be with you shortly." The ghoul left.
Not five minutes later a larger hooded figure stepped into the tent. Harry gazed in wonder, when the figure removed its hood. The man underneath was is lean and muscular, with a regal face, honey gold eyes, and black hair flowing down his shoulders. His skin was the color of teakwood, and he had dark wings that glimmered in shades of blue, black, and purple.
"Greetings, Harry Potter. I am Thanatos, or as many know me, Death." Harry gasped aloud at this. His mind flashed to the tale of the Deathly Hallows.
Death nodded as if reading his mind. "Now I imagine you have some questions for me, and I have a little time to answer them before I must send you back on the orders of Lord Hades himself."
"Send me back?" He asked in confusion, another question already forming on his tongue. "Wait Hades, as in the Greek god? They're real?"
"Very real. Of course they currently reside in America these days.
You see the gods move with the heart of the West. Western civilization isn't just an abstract concept. No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated.
The fire started in Greece. Then, the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps-Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on-but the same forces, the same gods."
Harry stared, speechless at this revelation. "In fact," Thanatos went on. "All witches and wizards are descendants of Hecate, the goddess of magic. I bet they didn't teach you that in your History Of Magic lessons."
"No they didn't" He agreed, dazed.
"Now as to your first question, I must send you back. You're life isn't meant to end yet. The sacrifice you made was very noble and as such we'll send you right back the moment you died and you can take everyone by surprise, kill Tom Riddle as you are destined to do and save the wizarding world."
"That's great!" Harry exclaimed, barely able to believe it.
"Or you came take the second option."
"Second option?"
"As it stands, you've done the best you can do considering the circumstances. But the fates are not satisfied with the way things have turned out. So much so that they're willing to offer you a second chance, a chance to go back to your first year at Hogwarts and do things over again with the knowledge you have gained."
"You mean...I could prevent Voldemort from coming back in the first place by destroying the horcruxes earlier?" It sounded too good to be true, too easy.
"Uh not quite. The prophecy must still be fulfilled so in one way or another, Tom Riddle must rise again and be destroyed, for good this time. But think of all the lives you could save by going back. You can mend the mistakes you've made as well."
"Mistakes" Harry echoed curiously.
"Well for one your relationship with Ginny Weasley."
"What's wrong with Ginny!?" He responded indignantly.
"Nothing's wrong with her except for being with you that is. She is not the one you are destined to be with. Do you deny this?"
He hung his head. The truth was, his feelings for Ginny had been fading for some time now. He'd clung to the relationship out of obligation more than anything. He did care about her and didn't want to hurt her, nor did he want think what a permanent break up could do to his relationship with the Weasleys.
"It's not your fault, I'm afraid the both of you have been manipulated emotionally through magic. She was just overcoming her childish crush on you and you were just beginning to realize your true feelings for the one you are truly meant to be with. There's no easy way to say this, you have been love potioned since the beginning of sixth year."
"What!?" Harry exploded, completely shaken by such a life altering revelation. "W-who?" Came soon after.
"I'm sorry, as this will come as a complete betrayal to you, but it was done by none other than Molly Weasley."
"No!"
"Unfortunately she like so many people in your society see love potions as a harmless bit of fun. Fred and George Weasley sold them as gag gifts in their shop if you'll recall. In your second year, Molly openly told Ginny and Hermione the story of when she gave one to Arthur. The difference there however, was that Arthur was already in love with Molly, the potion simply gave him the confidence to confess his feelings.
But when Ginny started dating Dean, Molly, who had had her hopes set upon you eventually marrying into the family for years by that point, decided to take matters into her own hands."
"I can't believe she'd do something like that" Harry said, still in disbelief.
"It was detrimental to both of you in the end. It kept you from realizing your true feelings for your real soul mate. It made Ginny's hero-worshipping crush return full force and prevented her from growing as a person. It also distracted you from more important matters during your last year at Hogwarts causing you to be ill prepared for the horcrux hunt."
"So...who is my soul mate?" He asked, feeling the other matters too heavy for him to explore further right now.
"Ah ah, Mr. Potter. That would be telling."
"But you said one of my mistakes was not realizing my feelings for her, how can I correct it if you don't tell me?"
"Don't worry, you'll figure it out especially once the effects of the love potion have fully worn off and your mind is clear again. For now we have other things to discuss. You are aware, of course that Dumbledore has been manipulating you since you were a mere baby. What you don't know is just how far that extends, namely regarding your magical inheritance."
"The Potter family is an ancient and noble house much like the Black and Malfoy families, but without a dark and bloody history. What this means is, the vault you've been using all this time is not the only one in your possession. You have three others all containing vast riches and priceless family heirlooms. You can by age fifteen assume the title of Lord Potter and hold a seat on the Wizengamot."
"Why would Dumbledore keep this from me?"
"To maintain control over you. You are nothing more than a pawn in his game of chess against Riddle, the prophecy about you being the only one who can defeat the dark lord, in his mind is a means to an end. To Dumbledore you are meant to die to save the wizarding world so you have no need of such assets, especially ones that you give you power and agency over your own life.
"You would have had a manor of your own if it hadn't been burnt to the ground in the first wizarding war, which is one of the reasons your parents lived in a simple house in Godric's Hollow before their death. Your vaults should however, contain your lordship ring and grimoire, a book which contains spells your ancestors have created themselves.
Unfortunately access to all this is through keys, keys that Dumbledore kept hidden in his office. Another problem you'll have concerns your magical core. The headmaster saw fit to have it blocked when you were an infant, greatly subduing the amount of power your magic has, along with preventing some natural magical abilities. You will have to find a way to undo this, though I cannot say how."
Death then explained more about the ways Dumbledore had manipulated Harry, including that Hagrid forgetting to tell him how to teach the platform and his meeting the Weasleys was a set up. All of this to ensure Harry got acquainted with the right sort of family.
After all this, Harry felt like his head was ready to explode. Death gave him a look of sympathy. "Now that you're up to speed on everything, we can waste no more time. There is however one last thing, a gift to help you out."
Harry perked up at this. "What kind of gift?"
"It's not a what but a whom."
"Huh?"
"You will not be forced make this journey back in time on your own, you may take one person with you."
"Hermione" Harry said instantly, not even needing to think about it.
"I thought you would choose her and so it shall be done. Now Harry Potter I must send you on your way, I wish you the best of luck. You're going to need it" He added with a wink.
A/N: This is my first fanfic so please be extra kind in your reviews! Just to be clear I added some PJO elements as you can see but this is NOT an actual crossover. I hope you enjoy my story!