Harry Potter was livid. This is another attempt at his life by the Dursleys. Ever since he had refused to do all the chores for them, stating that he had not been even given sufficient food to do so, they have taken a new level of interest in treating him their way. As a result he had to endure multiple lashes of blades and broken bones on both his hands from them. He had somehow managed to stay through the pain given to him and the fact that his injuries seemed to vanish the next morning did nothing but encourage their treatment of him. They had branded him the Devil Spawn in their neighborhood and hence he had received no sympathy from the ones witnessing their actions towards him. He had tried to complain to the primary teacher and she seemed to worry about him, but after that, all he got was a thorough beating up by the Dursleys and his teacher had suddenly left. When he tried to inform other adults about the Dursleys' treatment, he had often ended up being in the wrong and so after a few times he had stopped trying.
Now, he was locked away in his cupboard after being repeatedly hit in the face by Dudley's knuckle duster and when he resisted by trying to block the punches thrown by Dudley, Uncle Vernon had given him lashes by his iron belt and shoved him into the cupboard under the stairs. It had been two weeks since and there was no sign of anyone coming to give him a loaf of bread or at least water. Harry had been dehydrated for about three days and he had been sure that this time when the Dursleys open the cupboard door, there would be only a corpse that was once Harry Potter. But, Harry decided he would not go without a fight. He swore to himself that he would come and give them their price even if it meant that he would have to come from the dead. There was much he had intended to do in his life, Harry mused, but he was given no chance. He slowly slipped into sleep with teary eyes, hoping that his suffering would end soon.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
When Harry woke up, he was in a large white room and sleeping on an opulent bed. He slowly woke up from the bed and headed out of the room. The room seemingly was situated on the third floor of the building he was in, which, from the look of it, was a large castle with four levels, and many rooms. Harry stood still on the top of the staircase, noticing at the moment that, for the first time since he had known, Harry was free of any kind of pain in his body. He was now overwhelmed, but the presence of something very familiar made him calm down in an instant. Harry turned around and looked for the source of the feeling and couldn't believe his eyes. There, looking into his emerald eyes, are the brightest emeralds he had ever known, those belonging to one red headed woman in her early twenties. Harry tried, but words refused to form in his throat. He was now overwhelmed with emotion he had since buried deep inside him. In front of him was his mother, looking exactly the same as he had found when he had secretly dug through the attic one day when he felt vindictive and found an old trunk where he found his mother's diary and some of his family photos. Now, he had her literally in front of him, and he did not know how to respond. She was also staring at him, with kindness and love in her eyes, but not uttering a single word. It had seemed to Harry like many minutes had passed but he had slowly grabbed what little courage he could and spoke up to her.
"M- Mom?" Harry asked tentatively, not daring to leap forward in his beliefs. When he looked at her, all the fears Harry had about her had vanished in an instant. She merely opened her arms and nodded, urging him forward into an embrace. He immediately moved and ran into her loving embrace. Tears rolling out, he embraced her fiercely.
"Well, what do we have here?" Harry was trembling with fear but Lily started giggling.
"Hey, stop it James! You know he was already overwhelmed," she said.
James, Harry's father started laughing and said, "it's good to meet you kiddo, you are a brave heart, not quitting through all that." his voice turned somber "but you shouldn't have been put through that hell. If we were able, we would have given everyone responsible a piece of our mind."
Harry started bawling at that. He knew. He knew that it was all over, and he could rest now. But deep inside, a part of him wanted to do something about them. They shouldn't be so free while they were literally going on trying to torture a kid and eventually murdered him.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Albus Dumbledore was walking through his office in the morning, getting all the admission letters ready to be dispatched to the students. The magic of Hogwarts has made it easy for every Headmaster/Headmistress she had housed in selection of the future generations of wizarding citizens in England. Now that the rise in the number of muggle-born students these past three generations, the work of Headmaster was clearly cut in half due to her help. The Deputy Headmistress, though, has been assigned another duty from the castle herself. She had made it mandatory for every individual who bear the post of Deputy Headmaster/mistress in her castle to go to the muggle society and try to explain to the muggle-born witches and wizards about the existence of magic and the importance of controlling one's internal magic to avoid catastrophic magical accidents. So Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall has been to the muggle society to do her duty and bring forth another prospective student to the wizarding world.
Albus was about to take a seat in his office to go through the recommendations by the board of governors for the post of Defence Professor, when he had a feeling that something was wrong. Being a man who valued these sensations, he had started going through the trinkets he had installed notifying him of various important events in Britain. He had gone through ones representing the meetings called in the Wizengamot and ICW, but they had turned up empty. He then moved on to the feelers placed on various dark wizards and those too were just sitting there doing nothing. So none of the dark wizards were onto anything significant. Now Albus turned to the set of trinkets monitoring the health and well being of his charge, Harry Potter. He had been trying to help the prophecy child stronger by leaving him in a harsh household environment and making him habituated to handling trouble. It also helped that the woman was his mother's own sister and hence enhanced a sort of blood protection Lily Potter had, knowingly or unknowingly, activated at her death. He was sad that he had to go through this, but it was necessary for the child to emerge stronger and defeat the Dark Lord.
But now, as he looked at the trinkets monitoring Harry, he was shocked. None of them were alive. Not even the one indicating his health. All of them had been shut down and as lifeless as could be. Albus felt his heart drop as the implications came to him. Harry Potter was either in mortal peril or had already passed away. But that should not be possible. How did it happen?
Albus cast multiple spells at the trinkets and found that they were working as they should, that meant that Harry WAS really in danger. Albus now had immediately apparated to the backyard of the Dursley's home. He slowly changed his appearance to match the neighborhood and went towards the front door and knocked.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
Harry was sitting in the living room on the couch, watching the TV showing what all was happening in the living world around the Dursley Residence. So far nothing interesting was happening. It was only a few hours since he had come to the nether realm. His mother was furious with the Dursleys. The treatment he had received from the Dursleys was not at all acceptable. She had vowed to find a way to go back to the living realm, at least temporarily to give the Dursleys a life full of hell. Harry had a small smile form upon his lips at the thought. He was not alone. His parents were not drunkards like the Dursleys had claimed. Even though he had known about his mother for a time now, he was still afraid that the Dursleys might be correct in their tales. But now, he could truly relax. His parents loved him dearly, and also gave their lives for him to survive. Too bad, he could not survive the beating. But he was not at all sad about that. Nope, he was happy that he had finally met with his parents. He had finally had the sense of loving in his whole life as long as he remembered. He was about to get up from the couch and join his mother in the kitchen where he could smell the treacle tarts being made. He wanted to help her. The only thing he loved among the chores he was forced to do at the Dursleys was cooking and gardening.
Just then he noticed an old man with purple robes and a large white beard appear out of nowhere at the back of the Dursley's. He called his mother out from the kitchen.
"Mom, there is someone who appeared in the backyard out of nowhere. You said about someone named Voldemort? Is that him?"
Lily rushed out of the kitchen and looked at where Harry was pointing. Then she visibly relaxed and said that it was Albus Dumbledore. Harry was also relaxed. As much as he had come to hate the Dursleys, he could not entertain the thought of someone as vile and cruel as Voldemort coming at the muggle area and wreaking havoc. They had watched, enjoying the treacle tarts, as Dumbledore came forward and talked to Vernon and Petunia. Then they had been pushed back by, according to Lily, a knockback jinx and Dumbledore entered the house, his face sporting his true rage. They watched as he had moved towards the cupboard under the stairs and unlocked the multiple locks with a single spell. He had then proceeded to examine the tiny body laying on one corner of the cupboard multiple times. As Albus Dumbledore came out, his long hair flowing and crackling with power. He had taken his wand and intended to curse the Dursleys to oblivion and back. But at the last moment, Albus sighed and just took the body out of the cupboard and left in a whirl of magic.
Harry and Lily sighed defeatedly and went on about their time. James joined after sometime, having completed whatever he was doing in the nether and he too had some food. Then they all came together and started to plan their retributions for the actions against them. Just as they were about to call it a day, another presence was sensed on the outside of the property by James. He got up and went outside to see who it was, and came back with a tall sleek man who covered himself by a hood. The only thing visible had been the two large emeralds glowing in the dark. The man (was this really a man?) was surrounded by eternal darkness and wisps of dark grey swirling around him. He turned to look at all three Potters with his large emerald eyes. James and Lily trembled at his gaze but Harry had a vastly different sensation. He felt cold creeping through him, just like James and Lily, but he had also felt warmer on the inside at the same time. He looked into those emerald eyes which were more vibrant than his and even actual emeralds, and a smile crept on his face. He had no idea who this man was, but he had been entranced by those eyes of his. Harry had now found a new kind of peace by just looking at him.
The man(?) reached forward and settled on the sofa at the far end of the room and motioned for the Potters to settle down, which they did immediately.
"Lord Potter, I think that now is the apt time for you to start your role in the council and hand over some of your on-field duties to your son-heir. Think it over and start instructing him on the duties he ought to perform and I would be pleased if you could take your throne as the Head of the Nether realm.
James stood up and bowed to the man, waist-deep and replied in affirmative. Lily scooted nearer to Harry and placed a comforting arm over him, misjudging his excitement on seeing the Entity he now knew to be Death as fear. The Entity looked at Lily and said,
"Lady Potter, fear not, your Heir is more than capable of handling himself around beings like me and my Lady. He will become the most efficient ruler of the Nether realm and also brings forth equilibrium and harmony among all beings, alive or dead." Harry observed his body glow in eternal white for a moment as the blessings of Death began taking effect.
"Heir-Lord Potter, Harry, I wish to speak to you for a moment about something crucial. Follow me." Harry rose up and was about to follow him when his mother got hold of his hand and was looking like she wouldn't let go. Harry sighed and turned to his mother and just nodded, showing that he had no fear whatsoever. He gently pulled his hand out of his mother's grip and nodded at her and followed Death towards the office James regularly used.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
"Welcome, son!" Death was settled in the chair at the head of the table, and pointed Harry to sit in the chair in front of him.
"Now, there is something I want to tell you, that your parents know only part of, and are worried about you. The reason they were dead is because they were trying to save you from a maniac. I hope they told you at least that?" Harry nodded. Now the supreme entity spoke again.
"There is a prophecy regarding that maniac and you. He had only known about a small part of it, but that was enough for him to come after you. We will come to that later, but now, what do you think is the most loathsome thing for a soul to experience?"
Harry thought for a while but could not come to a particular answer. So Death continued, "Being cracked and broken to pieces. Such a soul cannot be redeemed for anything they have done in the life cycle, they shall be abandoned by all beings in the long run, cast away, alone for eternity in pieces. That man, Voldemort is his taken name, was so afraid of us Entity called Death that he had intentionally cracked his soul and created what are known as Horcruxes, those little containers to hold his pieces of soul for all eternity, while he was trying to live with his body, longer than any living being can fathom about."
Death took a moment to quell the rage building up inside them. It would not do to lose one's control to the worldly feelings when one is in the prestigious and most important position of soul management across the multiverse.
"He had already lost his human sanity by performing the crime against the nature of life and Death and is now almost unkillable. Then he had been told by a spy of his about the prophecy, though the spy himself could not gather the full details about it."
Harry was drawn into what he was hearing from Death. His interest in the cause of the attacks on his parents has risen every passing moment of hearing the tale. Death decided to come clean with the details of the Prophecy that the Fates have allowed to be spoken in the mortal world, though he could not understand why Fates chose to just drop some of the important details into the mortal world like that. It is not that the mortals could understand the majority of it in the sense of truth, they build their own delusions over the words which very rarely come closer to the truth.
"The Prophecy stated is as follows:
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…
Born to those who have thrice defied him, Born as the seventh month dies…
And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…
And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…
There may be many ways the prophecy was understood, but the true way was, as your duty for the Nether Realm, you need to get rid of Voldemort and his soul pieces.
When Voldemort attacked your family when you were a child, his soul was already damaged enough and after he had killed your parents, he tried to kill you. Then the killing curse bounced off of you and hit him. Then his already fractured soul had split and one part had latched on to the scar on your forehead. So by dying, you have already destroyed the part in your scar."
Harry was too stunned to speak. He could not bear the thought that a part of his parents' murderer had been residing in his scar. He retched on the floor, unable to comprehend all this information. After he had calmed down for a bit, he started to speak.
"Ugh! Good thing that that abomination is gone from me. I will do whatever I can to make you and my parents proud. But how? I don't know any ways to make it possible."
"Don't worry dear. There is time for that to happen and also you will receive help from more sources than me and your parents. In fact, you will welcome a guest to your home on the next All Hallows' Eve. She will be able to help you in your quest and duties too. Now, I have spent too much time with you, but I ought to go now to make sure the flow of nature is not interrupted. Stay calm, study about your family legacy from your father and also make sure to gain all knowledge of all things needed as you go. Ta!"
Death vanished from the room and Harry felt a bit empty on the inside. Harry peered out of the window since he had been feeling too tired to continue the day. Luckily it had been dark already and Harry decided to go to bed. Just then Lily came to his room, face showing worry about him and invited him to have a toast. Harry quickly compiled, and after having their toast, all three Potters retired to their beds, too tired from the turn of events.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —