Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter in any way, shape, or form. I only own the plot and any characters who appear that are not apart of the original series.

A Different Reality

By Constellations

In Which a Vacation Is Interrupted

It was early morning and the sky was still at its blackest. Stars littered the expanse, shining vibrantly against the inky darkness. Only the occasional cricket and the faint rustling of the wind moving through the trees broke the eerie silence that had spread throughout the surrounding countryside.

A dirt road cut through the landscape, winding its way along the rolling hills. The only other sign of a human touch was a small cottage nestled among a grove of trees located several miles from the road.

If one looked closely they would spy a lone figure languidly walking along the road. Cloaked in a long black robe, the form melded with the shadows, making him almost impossible to see.

All that could really be observed about the figure was that he was rather tall and moved with an unnatural grace.

With a slight smile he stopped and looked around him. He was almost beginning to like it here. The silence was refreshing and the fact that he was the only one around for miles was very appealing.

Maybe just this once he would be able to enjoy his vacation in peace. No distractions. No interruptions.

The figure sighed. Like that was ever going to happen. Every time he attempted to take a vacation something would happen that would require his attention. Some people never do accept the fact that they are dead very well. And they would always make a mess of things. He'd given up counting how many times his office had been destroyed centuries ago. Humans always had been a rather rude race.

Don't get him wrong. He liked his job. Of course at first he hadn't been exactly thrilled, but none of the other immortals had wanted the job. So he had been stuck with it and for years after Death had regretted being late for that particular meeting.

It had grown on him over time though. It was rather amusing to watch mortals' reactions when they met. Humans tend to have the funniest expressions on their face when they're in shock.

It was, he felt, reasonably rude for someone to faint while he was talking to them, but being the Grim Reaper, he sometimes had that effect on people.

What really annoyed him, however, was the fact that hardly anyone could recognize him without that stupid guise on. It had been that way ever since that one Halloween night several centuries before. The event had just started to be popular and Feriae, the goddess of holidays, after many futile attempts had finally convinced him to take part.

So he had changed into a skeleton, donned one of his black robes and brought a scythe along for effect. Death thought it had been quite an original costume compared to just wearing a white sheet over his head to look like a sad interpretation of a ghost. He had grudgingly made himself visible at Feriae's request (which is how the whole misunderstanding took place) so he could "fully partake in the nights events" as she had put it.

Some idiot had seen his costume and had come up with the genius idea that that's what Death really looked like (most likely associating the skeleton with death in general). By the next year he had really started to regret not wearing that dumb sheet.

The image by then was firmly stuck in everyone's head and there had been nothing Death could do about how humans thought he looked. Needless to say he never participated in the 'stupid holiday' (as he referred to it) again and had refused to talk with Feriae for three decades.

Death, however, recovered from the incident quite well once he realized that wearing the guise got even better reactions from mortals than before. After all, scaring humans was one of his favorite activities. Though he still favored wearing one of his long black robes, from time to time Death would don the get-up when he was in the mood.

He stood there lost in memories of things long ago until the distant call of an owl jerked him from his thoughts. Looking around he realized that he had been standing along the road longer than he thought. The sky was already starting to lighten to a blue-gray and the stars were but a faint trace in the heavens.

The sound of a car coming up the road to Death's left caused him to turn. Questions flitted through his head as the vehicle came into sight, a gradually increasing spot on the horizon. What is someone doing out here in the middle of nowhere? Glancing at his watch he thought, It is only 6 in the morning... why are they out so early?

Not wanting his presence to be noticed, Death turned himself invisible while the car grew closer. By now it was close enough that he was able to make out a large man behind the wheel.

Much to his surprise, the beefy man came to a sudden halt about 5 yards from where Death stood. Nervously looking around, the man got out of the car (which required some effort for one so large) and shuffled over to the passenger's side. Quickly opening the door, he reached inside and roughly pulled out a bundle. With an anxious expression plastered across his face, the man practically dropped the bundle near the side of the road. Taking another glance around him, he got into the car and hastily sped back down the road.

Death had always considered himself to be very well composed. In this case, however, curiosity got the better of him. He cautiously stepped toward the bundle and gently picked it up. What he found almost made him drop it in shock.

It was a baby, a baby boy who could not have been over a year old. Who seemed very familiar as well. Death studied the boy closely. He was small, but then most young children were, and had messy black hair. "Nothing unusual" he murmured, "the boy looks normal except for that lightning bolt mark…" That seemed familiar too, but Death couldn't quite place it.

Absently he traced the line of the boy's scar. Almost immediately he felt a small jolt of magic course through his hand. The boy jerked awake and he found himself staring into bright emerald green orbs. Those eyes… Memories of the night before came crashing back inside his head.

He remembered now. He had gone to the house with a new trainee to show him the ropes so to speak.

It had been another attack by another one of those upstart 'Dark Lords' who kept popping up every century or so. Voldemort, he believed this one to be, but Death never had been good at keeping track of such things, there were just too many of them.

He had left the trainee to deal with the man and had gone upstairs into a bedroom where all the commotion seemed to be coming from. He entered to see a young woman with bright red hair standing defiantly in front of a crib. Surprisingly, she had looked straight at Death and sent a silent plea to him. Please keep my baby safe… He had nodded at the woman. He would protect the child. It was not everyday that a mortal could see him when he was invisible. In fact, he could count the number of times it had happened on one hand.

The woman had given Death a grateful smile before turning her attention on the newest Dark Lord. She put up a brave fight, but in the end the man killed her. However, she had died knowing her son would live and that was all that mattered.

Death had cast his protection over the boy and left as Voldemort muttered the killing curse. He had no reason to stay. The boy would live and Voldemort would be in for a nasty shock. The wizards would take of the boy that he had been sure of, or at least he had been at the time.

Now looking at the boy in his arms he wondered what the heck had happened. Not that it did him much good. He wasn't omniscient… he did after all have some limits. But it really did not matter at the moment. The question was what to do with the boy. Death had promised to protect him and he had. However, he had thought that Dumbledore would have done better than place the boy with someone who obviously hadn't a hint of magic about themselves. A plan which obviously had not worked out as well as the old wizard had planned.

After mulling over the situation for a while Death decided to do something that he had never done before. His mind made up, Death situated the baby securely in his arms. It had been a while since he had meddled into wizarding affairs. With a smirk he disappeared with the baby in a blink of an eye. This was going to be fun…

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Note:

'''Several centuries beforehand Death had given up trying to deal with everything by himself, Earth had been getting too populated for that anymore. So he'd taken in lesser immortals as assistants to help. (The majority of lesser immortals include pixies, sprites, motes, and brownies.) Several decades ago Death had decided to focus on the training of new assistants and managing the operations, leaving most of the work to his experienced assistants who happily took over. Everyone had been rather happy about the change. His older assistants had been complaining for years about the lack of work (they happened to love their jobs) and Death was glad to finally have time to relax again. All in all, the arrangement suited everyone very well.

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