Prologue
The smell of death was heavy in the air, the sounds of mourning as all around the great hall people found those they loved dead, friends, family and classmates. And all because of me. "Harry you can't!" Hermione cried tears in her eyes and voice strained from crying. My sister in all but blood. "We need you! I need you!" I felt my heart break from the pain in her voice as she begged me to ignore Voldemort's message. But I can't and we both know why. I'm a horcrux. A part of Tom Riddle's soul lodged in my scar. I shiver in revulsion at the thought, bile climbing up my throat only to be swallowed down. Tears trying to escape my eyes. I don't want to die, but I would never be able to live knowing what I am. Knowing that being alive gives him a foothold in the land of the living.
"I have to." She goes to interrupt but I pull her into a hug. " Let me finish, please." She stills holding tight to my shirt, her body shaking with the force of her sobs, tears absorbed into its fabric. "Before this all started, just after 6th year I went to Gringotts. I wanted to be prepared incase-" I pause to take a shaky breath, tears escaping my eyes. "- Incase I didn't make it-" "You'll make it, you have to! You're all I have left! The brother I always wanted, if you don't make it I-I" She states fear and determination afire in her eyes, even as tears stream down her cheeks. " I know, I know-" I take a deep breath and pull her closer. My hands go to her cheeks guiding her to meet my eyes. "I made you heir to the Potter lordship and all that entails. Including the wizengamot seats for both Potter and Black family's at least until Teddy is old enough and can inherit the Black family Lordship." Her hands meet around my waist to keep me close as long as possible. She's shaking so hard with the force of her sobs that her knees give out and I lower us gently to the floor. "Take care of him for me. Take care of yourself too. Don't just survive, live, you're the best of us Hermione and you deserve to be happy to be with someone who makes you happy even if he is a ferret." I press my lips to her forehead in a tender kiss and look up at Draco who had snuck up on us, sneaky ass snake. I look him in the eyes and understanding passes between us. I nod at him. "Take care of her." A look of determination in his eyes, his shoulders straight. "I will, I swear it." I feel relieved I know just how seriously purebloods take their oaths. "I love you Hermione." I quickly separate from Hermione and run down the corridor, looking back only to see Draco holding her as she cries. "No Harry -Harry! No!"
But I'm around the corner and by entrance pausing only to put my invisibility cloak over me and to silence my steps.
………
Once in the forest, close enough that I can just barely hear the death eaters, I take out the snitch left to me by Dumbledore. "I open at the close." I read, mouthed but not spoken and press it to my lips sticking my tongue out just enough to taste its sharp metallic taste. It opens revealing a stone, more a pebble really, nestled inside. As soon as I see it I know what it is. The resurrection stone. I pick it up with both reverence and caution. As soon as the stone meets my skin the very air changes a feeling cold and eerie but strangely comforting, familiar in a way. "Harry." I look up to see my mother, father, Sirius, Remus, Tonks and even Snape before me. I tear up. "Mum, Dad" I feel younger and more vulnerable than ever, my heart raw at the sight of those I've lost and those I never got the chance to know.
"We're proud of you harry." My dad says a sad understanding smile, his eyes and voice soft.
"Does it hurt?" I ask tears streaming down my face sadness at what could have been lessening even as a sense of peace at what is, comes over me, strengthening my resolve and warming my heart.
"Dying? No Harry it's just like falling asleep." Sirius answers. A snort comes from Professor Snape. "At least it is when it's the killing curse you die by. Getting your throat ripped out by a giant snake is an entirely different matter." Sirius turns to glare at him, his teeth grinding. "Not helping Snivellus!" Snape arches his brow with a look of disgust on his face. " Like lying is any better!"
The sound of laughter interrupts their argument, soft and musical. My mums laugh. "Be that as it may Sev, we both know he'll use the killing curse. If only to prove he can kill him with it." Professor Snape looks at her with sadness, acceptance and peace, his eyes soft in a way I've never seen, a small smile on his lips. He turns to me " She's correct you know, he'll use the killing curse so as to silence whispers that he is unable to kill you with it. A matter of pride you might say." "It's like falling asleep?" I ask my parents. "It is." I take a deep breath, a last look at all of them to sink the sight into my memories. I steel myself shoulders back, I drop the stone and make my way towards death to greet him as a friend.
"Avada Kedavra!"
………
It's white this facsimile of King's Cross, platform 9 the place where everything started. "Harry my boy I am glad to see you!" I turn to see what looks like Dumbledore but by the cold and quiet peace radiating off of him I know better.
"Death." I state a little bit peeved that he? They? chose Dumbledore's form, the one who betrayed my trust and sent me to my death like a lamb to the slaughter. He chuckles the sound deep and rumbling as if from the depths of the earth itself. His shape shifts his height increasing til he looms over me, his arms and legs unnaturally long, his cloak long and so black it seems to absorb the light around him, his hands poking out of his sleeves, fingers tipped with long wicked claws. And though I cannot see his face from under his hood, his eyes glow with sickly green fire the same color as the killing curse. Familiar eyes that match my own. "Master." He rumbles, somehow managing to sound fond and amused though his tone barely changes. "It is a pleasure to see you once again. And it's He/him for now." He bows both dramatic and sarcastic but not false, his tone sincere. "Again?" I ask a furrow in my brow. A rumble that barely passes for a chuckle erupts from his chest. " Yes last you were here you were naught but a babe. Your parents bodies, not yet cool." I draw in a sharp breath at the implications. "I died then? But I thought-" "Thought what? That your mother's love would be enough to cheat death? Many mothers both magical and non-magical have died in an attempt to save their children. No, love though an incredible power was not what saved you." He informs me amused but not unkind. "Then-" I paused to swallow the air thick with tension like the calm before a storm. "Then what?" "You are my master and have been since before your birth and will continue to be so long after. I could not, and would not remove you before your time." I feel dread shiver down my spine and a feeling of horror dawns upon me. "I can't die, can I?" I lick my lips, my mouth suddenly dry, my breaths shaky. "I'll never see my family, my mum, my dad, Hermione again?" "You can die." A breath of relief escapes me but leaves me just as quick at his next words. "But not for long, eventually you'll either be reborn, past memories forgotten or simply wake up. Your injuries healed as if nothing happened. As far as your family, they've already moved on where you cannot follow." "Moved on but I just saw them!" I feel flushed with anger. "Yes well the name resurrection stone is a bit of a misnomer. It is really more of a window that allows you to see into the realm of the dead. Whether or not you can actually physically go there is another matter entirely." His tone is sheepish as he scratches the back of his neck. A move so human that to see one that is so obviously not human do so is mildly unsettling. An odd mix of casual and macabre that is at once bewildering and strangely endearing. "The stone is yours though and as such you can use it as you will. The dead are however rather uncomfortable with continuous use, to use the window metaphor again, it is rather like the air from the land of the living is so hot that over time they start to burn from it. It is the other way around for the living though, using the stone too often can leave them cold inside and out, rather similar to dementor exposure."
I take a deep breath attempting to calm myself, so as to not yell at the literal personification of death. "So what now? Do I just wake up or something?" He straightens suddenly looking quite serious. "No, that is unfortunately no longer an option." "What!? But you just said-"
"Yes, Yes I know what I just said." He waves his hand dismisivly as if shooing away an annoying fly. "In most cases it would be possible, there is however a matter of responsibilities. And as your mortal human spider says 'With great power comes great responsibility.' and you most certainly have great power." "Responsibility!? I didn't ask for any of thi-" "Too bad, now I am not unreasonable and as such you will find yourself with company. Since, I imagine you would be quite cross should I end any of your friends early I will simply pull them from the point in time when they are already dead." As he speaks, what I can only describe as a portal opens up behind him, a hospital room with a bed surrounded by both adults and children, and what appears to be an elderly Draco on a seat near the bed. "D-Draco? Hermione?" Death reaches out and an orb of light sails from the figure on the bed, through the portal right into his open hand. The moment this portal closes another one opens to a scene almost exactly like the one before only this time draco is the one on the bed. Death reaches out his other hand and yet again another orb flies right into his waiting hand.
"Indeed. Now since I'm taking one set of parents from you it is only fair you get another." As he opens his hands the orbs, the souls, begin to take shape. Hermione's shifts into a woman with curly black hair and dark purple eyes, Draco's a man with white hair and lavender eyes. They both get flung out of sight with a casualness that borders on cruel. I gasp speechless at the sight. "Now that we have your parents taken care of we can move on to you."
"What-?" he continues without even stopping at my interruption. "I think we'll keep the black hair, just make it less unruly." he waves his hand at me and a feeling eerily similar to polyjuice comes over me. "For your eyes purple is a necessity, but we can't just forget about the green, it is after quite signature. So we'll simply leave a ring of it around your iris." A flick of his wrist and my eyes feel like I got soap in them. "Ah! W-What!?"
"Now for the piece de la resistance. Just to fuck with our "dear" JKR." He looks toward the camera like a character from the office.
"Be thou girl."