The Apprentice of Death

Written by: Kaspis

In the deepest most horrible realms of hell inhabited by the most dangerous and feared demons in both, heaven and hell was a place that was feared by all the beings.

On the highest mountain above all the pain and suffering of those who were misfortunate enough to end up here. Stood a castle whose walls were stained with blood of thousands. All of them found their final resting place here, on this mountain. And it did not mater who they were, hordes of demon warriors, armies of angels, lonely but extremely powerful beings older than mountains. All of them came here for one purpose only. Claim the castle. Not only for the numerous artifacts of great power, not only for the tomes of powerful rituals spells and forbidden or long forgotten brands of magic. They came here also for glory which came to those who could defeat two residents of the castle. But as many mighty by power or numbers came no one went past the gate. They all laid their heads here at the short path up the hill to the castles main entrance.

The castle itself wasn't very welcoming looking. The black walls with runes painted in blood and large dark towers with black flags that billowed in the wind. The main gates were made out of dark metal with emblem of two silver reapers crossed together and a silver sand clock on top. The path to it had fresh blood on it not to mention peaces of skin a couple of hands with long fingers and sharp nails that looked like they had been torn away from their owner's body. There were a couple of places were earth looked like it has been burned other places had longs slashes in them that looked like they were made with the sword, in other spots of the ground you could still see little pools of acid eating away anything that fell in them. The whole place looked like two huge armies have battled there.

But the truth was that only battle that occurred here was between one man and the army of demons. They came here to once more try to claim the castle and he was here to once more kill anyone who was foolish enough to try. The army itself consisted of quite powerful war demons extremely skilled in hand to hand and weapon combat. There numbers were truly great but they were completely unprepared for and kind of magical assault. It was because having such great power they really had a little brain to use it.

On the other hand their opponent was a hybrid. Even he himself couldn't tell what peaces of other creatures were implanted in him thru the hundreds of years using all kinds of rituals, bonding ceremonies, blood magic and many other different methods. He only knew he was part vampire, werewolf, dementor, and a bit of every class of demon. Then he had a couple light creatures in him. Like a bit of archangel which wasn't exactly light but was the closest you can get. In difference from the demon army he came very well prepared. He had almost a week of preparation which he spent analyzing his enemies preparing his weapons and practicing magic which he was going to use. That time was more than enough.

A huge white moon in red sky illuminated a lone figure that stood on the roof of one of the tallest towers of the castle. His black robe billowed in the wind with dementor like manner. His hair was completely black and neck length. He wore black army like shoes and black pants. He wore black leather gloves with red pentagrams on them. He also wore a black blind fold on his eyes but it had several red runes on them which helped to control his dementor abilities.

The wind strengthened fluttering his coat more. It revealed two silver modified colts 45c around his belt. The weapons were a gift from his master when he noticed that his student had a natural talent in gun wielding. They were modified to be more powerful had a better aim and their bullets were poisoned and a man could die from a scratch.

He liked his guns. But his master newer gave any gifts easy. Oh no he had to work for them. It was more like a reward to him for accomplishing something. For passing some sort of test that required one or another skill. Like for the guns he had to go and take them by himself but only problem was that they were placed in the middle of fire demon camp. It took him a week to get there and he encountered some really not friendly creatures. Than when he tried to sneak into the camp and take them it appeared that they already been waiting for him. So while hiding behind the rock and evading balls of fire and streams of lava he cursed his master in all the names and languages he knew. No one else could have warned them about him. He knew it too well and when he accused his master he just smiled and asked if it wasn't worth it. He didn't answer but he knew it was. It just would have been too easy for him just to sneak in get the buns and get out. His master knew it too.

And no matter how sometimes hard the tests were how hard it was to learn he liked his master. He liked him for several reasons: first he newer spoke too much only when it was needed and even then he only whispered, second, he always stayed calm and newer showed emotions. He couldn't actually see his face because he still was blind but he saw his aura and body heat which newer changed. And most important his master newer gave up on him.

Since his training started he really had problems with one thing or another. He sometimes failed his tests miserably. He almost died a couple of times but still his master always made him try again and again until he was successful.

He smiled. He remembered when he first got here. Oh yes that was a day to remember. That day he gave up being Harry Potter and became Apprentice of Death. His master really wasn't death it was only a title given to him but still…

Flashback…

Harry opened his eyes. "What the hell happened?" He thought "And why is it so dark in here?" With that thought all the events of the day came crashing down on his head. The attack… the fight… the deaths…the darkness… the power. He shuck his head.

"Ok. Now how to get out of here… Where ever it is." He thought.

"I really don't think you would like to leave." A dark but very quiet voice said.

"And why would that be?" Harry asked with a sneer.

"Well if you could see I would show you thru the window and it would probably lose any wish to run away." A voice said. Harry felt a hint of sarcasm in it.

"And if I weren't blind what would I see if I took a look thru the window?" Harry asked not really caring what the answer would be.

"Hell…" Voice answered this time completely serious.

"What was that?" Harry asked not really trusting his hearing. He did hear the tone of the voice and I sounded that it was deadly serious but what he heard somehow didn't fit with the simple logic.

"You would see hell" the voice said and before Harry could say anything the voice continued. "No I don't mean that you would se something horrible I mean you would literally see hell." Voice explained.

Harry was speechless. One side of him didn't believe a word that man said but the other reasoned that he might be telling the truth. And instead of saying something extremely stupid asked the only normal question he could think of.

"Did I die?"

"No" the voice said with no intension of saying something more.

"Sooooo…"Harry said "Why am I here?"

"I guess you know that you are prophesized to kill the man named Tom Riddle?" Voice asked.

"Uh yeah. What's that got to do with me being in hell?" Harry asked a little agitated by the fact that he's in hell and no one tells him why. He wasn't that bad now was he?

"First listen." Man said calmly. "The one known as Tom Riddle has used some very powerful rituals and spells on his quest to achieve immortality. And though he has not yet became immortal he is very close. He is already ageless and immune to many ways of death. He even achieved a result that his body will not change and will stay at the same power level that could not be affected by time. But he didn't achieve it just now." Voice continued "He reached this state almost seventeen years ago. The moment he did the prophecy was made. Do you know why Mr. Potter?"

Once again Harry didn't have a slightest idea what to say. "No…" He said lamely.

"It is because at that moment he became more powerful than any man on earth. And since there was no one that could beat him technically he became immortal."

Harry still didn't have a slightest idea why he was here or how the prophecy could be made in such convenient moment. You can't order them right?

The man continued. "You see Mr. Potter I'm the one who is called the apprentice of death. For you see Mr. Potter in this universe there are some very simple rules that must be followed. And one of those rules is that everything must seize to exist. Or in all the living being case die. And when the first human tried to defy this rule death itself tuck one human and trained him in the most powerful ways of battle. He thought him powerful magic he gave him weapons provided with knowledge which no human should ever know. He made sure that human wouldn't die for a very long time. That human was the first apprentice of death. Death told him that he will not die until he would want it himself or there would appear someone who was more powerful than him. And even then he still had to train an apprentice who had to continue his job."

Now the grand picture was clearing. The prophecy wasn't just about his destiny to destroy Voldemort. The prophecy was just the beginning of his true destiny. He was to serve a greater purpose. He was to be the apprentice of death.

Harry could swear he could feel the man smiling. "Yes Mr. Potter you truly are correct. You will be the next apprentice of death but first I would like to share knowledge with you that will explain some more disturbing aspects of your life."

Harry now was again very confused. What could be disturbing about his life that his future master wants to tell him now?

"Mr. Potter do you know why man known as Albus Dumbledore has lived so long?" Harry shuck his head. "It is because the dark wizard known as Grinewald has overpowered me and I knew it but since there wasn't a man powerful and young enough to become the next apprentice of death I got an order to make a deal with Dumbledore. He was to destroy anyone who seeks immortality and live a very long life until there someone powerful enough was born. So he did as he was told and lived. But when Tom Riddle became more powerful than him death itself knew it was time to interfere. So it used its power and created a prophecy. The point of it was that Tom Riddle would choose his opponent himself. And so he did. He chose you. When he fired that killing curse the death itself was present. He entered your body and placed the seed of death there. From that moment you always had a piece of death in yourself. Thru time it grew stronger and more powerful giving you power. And tonight it has finally awoken. But that is not the point of this story. The point is that Dumbledore knew about this since the prophecy was made. I myself told him all this. I also told him that he must train you magic as soon as possible and then when you were ready I would have came to pick you up. But the power he had got to his head. He believed that he must lead the wizard world forever. And so he left you to non magical people while he could find a way to become immortal. And he did when you saved the sorcerers stone from Tom Riddle. Instead of destroying it he began using it himself. Nicolas Flamel only used it to increase his age and not his powers so he wasn't seeking immortality just older age. Dumbledore on the other hand combined the power of the stone with phoenix tears so the results were much more powerful."

"Old bastard!" Was the only thing on Harry's mind. "He manipulated me to get even more power than he already has!" Now Harry was really pissed off. He was sentenced to ten years of living hell just that bastard could stay in control! No he wasn't going to let him get away with it. Besides he rally didn't want to fail his boss on the first assignment.

A cruel smile appeared on his face. He was going to enjoy this job…

End Flashback…

Harry stood still for a couple of hours thinking. He knew that his training was complete. He would soon have to go back. The good thing was that in hell two minutes of earth time could take you a lifetime. He was now more that four hundred years old so only an half an hour would have passed.

He didn't want to make an appearance that quickly. He decided to wait. He had to buy himself a place to live he needed some equipment some cash and some clothes for Pete's sake. More importantly Dumbledore would have already figured out were he went and the moment he appears he would be accused of being dark wizard. And of course no one would be there to help him because our great and fair minister would only award Dumbledore for putting Harry into Azkaban. Dumbledore would not risk having anyone powerful enough to kill him running around freely. Even Tom was too afraid of him to try harder.

He was interrupted from his thoughts when he felt a something approaching him. But after a moment he recognized who it was and smiled. From the direction of the moon a black raven flew at him. He was bigger that any normal raven and had dark blue eyes instead of black. If you looked close enough you could see that he was surrounded by blue mist of frost. This bird was the creation of devil. As his master told him the devil was very pleased with the fact that death thought his apprentice mostly dark and dangerous magic that was mostly meant to destroy. And after hearing that God has given death his approval that its apprentice could die when he wished and would still go to heaven he decided that he too must make a present. So he created a raven. It was loyal fearsome and extremely powerful. His power went from his cold heart giving him the strength of cold and ice. Devil named it Sebastian. It was to serve its master and when he died he would serve his apprentice and so on.

It was now Harry's and he did like the bird.

He landed on Harry's shoulder and simply looked the same direction as Harry. Mist still surrounding him slightly.

Suddenly out of the ground a hooded figure rose behind Harry. Harry knew it was there but he was too used to his masters' tricks to scare him. So they just stood there in silence waiting for each other to make the first move. Suddenly his master spoke and that was something Harry wasn't expecting because he was waiting that he would attack him as he sometimes did to test his skills.

"You know that your training has ended." He said "I think its time for you to go and begin doing your job." Harry could have sworn that he heard a hint of sadness in his voice but it was already gone. "Before you go you might want to take this" With these words he handed Harry a brown envelope. "Here is everything you might need. New documents in wizard and muggle world. There are also documents to some properties in England Greece and some other countries. There is also a key to one of the vaults in that wizard bank." Harry took the envelope and put it in his coats inner pocket. "And of course you cannot go back without one more thing." He said and a smile appeared slowly on his face. Harry knew from his experience that it newer meant nothing good. "You must have a name that would fit your new profession. And since I'm still your master I'm the one who decides. And from this moment on you will be known as Raziel The Apprentice of Death.

Harry thought for a moment and nodded. His master again drew a pentagram in the air and the same portal that once sucked him thru and transported to hell appeared. Only now he didn't feel that powerful force that pulled him thru. And as he was about to step thru he thought of something.

"Dorian isn't your real name is it" Harry asked turning around.

"No" His master replied with the biggest smile he ever seen.

"Just out of curiosity what is your real name?" Harry asked. Looking at him but seeing just his aura since he was blind.

Suddenly it began to change. It mowed into one spot where the face of his master should be. It formed a white skull with two shining red eyes.

And he just whispered "Death"

That was way too much for Harry. The last thing on his mind was before he fainted was "Oh shit"

TBC…

Here is the second chapter I hope you like it ….

And remember I really want reviews people!

If you don't review I might think you don't like it and won't continue!

Bye for now!

Kaspis…