~Chapter 27~ A Great Sacrifice – 10 March 1995

~Voldemort~

A week later, Voldemort remembered the letter once more…not.

He'd spent the entire week alternating between trying to find a chance to give the letter to his mate and trying to open it himself so that he could stop whatever it was from saddening his mate.

It didn't help that Death would occasionally appear before shaking his head sadly before disappearing once more…as if even the entity himself didn't dare to tell Dimitri about the contents of the letter.

It didn't bode well, but finally, he managed to catch Dimitri sitting in front of the fireplace in his study and suddenly he found that he couldn't hide the letter any longer. He knew that Dimitri would already be irritated that he'd kept quiet about it for so long, so he sat down on the floor behind the younger man and dragged him into his arms before simply holding out the letter to him.

~Dimitri~

Dimitri blinked stupidly at the letter that Voldemort casually held out to him, but he could feel Voldemort's uneasiness and apprehension through the link, just as he'd felt throughout the week.

He didn't know if the man realized that he'd been projecting his feelings through the link, or if the man even knew that he could sense his feelings through it, but he'd patiently been waiting for the man to reveal the source of his anxiety, and half of him had been afraid that he was the source of it all.

He slowly took the letter and frowned when he recognized Death's magic on it. The entity could have easily given it to him, so why would he give it to Voldemort instead?

He startled a little as Voldemort suddenly spoke hesitantly as he laid his head on his shoulder while still holding him, "Death gave that to me a week ago…he said that because you decided to stay in this realm, there were some repercussions…"

Dimitri swallowed heavily as a foreboding fear gripped him. It didn't take a genius to guess why Voldemort had waited so long to give him the letter. The slight scorch marks on the envelope easily revealed the older man's attempts to open the letter, and the man's tenseness throughout the week suddenly made sense.

Dimitri hesitantly opened the letter, his eyes widening as he saw that instead of simply containing one letter, it contained a few.

He pulled them out slowly before placing them on his lap and putting the envelope aside. The first letter was from Draco. He frowned and then opened it.

Scarhead,

So…your 'friend' dropped by today. And by dropped by, I mean that I am currently asking all of the house elves to remove all mirrors from the Manor because seeing something climbing out of your mirror and coming to hover over your bed is NOT something I want to experience EVER AGAIN!

He said you are doing well so I guess I can't complain too much. It's boring without you here and we miss you…just please don't feel bad.

Draco.

(The letter seemed to end there, but there was a note added to the bottom, probably just before it was sent.)

PS. Granger will explain fully so I suggest that you open her letter last.

Dimitri felt Voldemort place a cushioning charm on the floor beneath them, it seemed like they were going to be a while. He smiled sadly as he imagined Death coming out of the mirror and almost scaring the blonde to death.

He gave it three days before Draco summoned the mirrors back to their original places.

He placed Draco's letter on the envelope and turned to the next letter. It was from George.

Hey Harry,

What have you been up to all this time? I've been doing ok with the shop. Percy and Ron often sleep over to help out a bit whenever they have some spare time. Bill too. Charlie moved to a closer sanctuary so we often get to see him as well. I was just in a floo call with them and they send their regards.

I didn't expect to be able to write to you but your 'friend' was kind enough to even let me speak to Fred for a bit when he appeared to give me the news, and I am ok with what's going to happen.

This world has truly lost its color without you in it, and I think it is better this way, knowing that Fred is still alive over there.

Please keep him safe for me?

George.

Dimitri started to frown, he didn't like where this was going, but he couldn't stop himself from opening the next letter, which was from Luna and Neville.

Hi Harry,

I hope you are doing well. Luna wanted to write a letter too, but for some reason, she saw that it wouldn't be a good idea, so here I am writing for both of us.

Luckily she'd warned me about your 'friend' appearing today, otherwise, I apparently would've fed half my fingers to a Venomous Tentacula. So, yes, I made sure to stay out of the Greenhouses for today. The students quite enjoyed their time out on the grounds instead, so I may just make it a regular occurrence.

As for the news that your 'friend' brought, well, Luna had been sensing that something like that would happen so it wasn't a big surprise. Just…take care of yourself?

Luna and Neville.

Dimitri was slightly starting to panic. Why did it sound like they were all saying goodbye? Death said that he would be able to carry letters over so surely they could still stay in contact?

Unless they didn't want to be his friends anymore…

He shook that thought off immediately. If that were true then they wouldn't have bothered sending letters to him. He took a breath to calm down and he felt Voldemort lightly kiss his neck.

The action made him freeze for a moment before Voldemort squeezed his waist lightly from where his arms were wrapped around Dimitri's middle, "You are thinking too much, I can feel it. Whatever it is, we will figure it out, even if I have to infiltrate the Atlantean library to get the information for it."

The words caught Dimitri off guard for a moment and he jerked his head around, "Wait, Atlantis is real?!"

Voldemort simply chuckled and nodded before laying his head on Dimitri's shoulder once more, "Come on, it's almost time for bed."

Dimitri nodded before turning to the last letter. It was from Ron and Hermione, though when he opened the letter, it seemed that Hermione did most of the writing, with Ron chipping in once.

Hey Harry,

I don't know how time progresses there, but here it has already been quite a few years since you left. The Ministry seems to have lost the last of its marbles as time went by and the rules now resemble Umbridge's wall in Hogwarts, just before the centaur, ahem 'incident'.

The Wizarding World isn't the same anymore and magic seems to be slowly dying out.

Your 'friend', Death, told me quite a while ago that this might happen once you made up your mind, so we knew that it was coming, I just…don't want you to blame yourself for it.

Even though we have each other here and we can still write to you…we are tired of fighting this neverending mental war with the Ministry.

(She's right mate, and it's not like we won't see you anymore, right?)

What Ron is trying to say, is that you would still be able to visit us as the Master of Death after this, so it won't be a bad thing at all.

We miss you, Harry,

Ron and Hermione.

Dimitri felt like he had ice flowing through his veins. Surely this can't be happening? Not what he was thinking at least.

But then he remembered Death's words before he sent Dimitri back, "We both know what you want, but ask Harry… ask and I shall give it to you but you better be willing to pay the price, even as my master."

A harsh breath escaped his chest as he struggled to get out of Voldemort's arms before standing up and pacing the room. His magic whipped around him in a frenzy and he barely registered the shields that Voldemort pulled up around the shelves to keep the magic from damaging the books. He could see that the man wanted to come toward him, but he shook his head and closed his eyes.

"DEATH!"

Now he knew why the entity hadn't given him the letter himself. It was because he knew that Dimitri had believed that the price would be paid by the light side once he helped Voldemort to win the war, but it all made more sense now.

If it had been as easy as simply sacrificing one soul to save another, then Death would have resurrected Ignotus ages ago. But Death was unable to do so because then he would have to reap the soul of another version of the man.

He opened his eyes when he felt the entity appear before him, but the look on the entity's face drained the anger from his body, and like a puppet with its strings cut, he sank into one of the chairs, "When did…when did it happen? Did they…"

The entity sighed and gazed into the fire, "The moment after your friend, Hermione, gave me her letter. And no, they did not suffer. In your terms, it was like falling asleep and not waking ever again."

Dimitri swallowed heavily, "Why the entire world? Why not just…?"

The entity smiled sadly, "Because the being that held the fabric of that universe together, was not there anymore and it was either that or lose those that were destined to die here as well."

Dimitri froze, "But how? Some of them already died, how could you use their souls as payment? Does that mean...Hermione got it wrong when she thought that I would be able to see them again?"

Death nodded, glancing down guiltily, "I allowed your friends to send messages to you because I knew that, once you fully accepted this reality, everything in that world will be used as payment to save this one, and once you requested it, there was no going back."

Dimitri jumped up, frustration and anger clear on his face, "Why didn't you TELL me before I made the choice! You knew that I would react like this! You knew this would hurt me!" He felt Voldemort behind him and leaned back, blindly reaching for his hand in search of an anchor.

The entity looked up, and suddenly Dimitri stilled at the raw pain on the being's immortal face, "Because I saw what would happen and you would have lost them one by one anyway. You would have been left behind, alone and immortal, in a world that constantly changed and the hole that Voldemort's absence caused, as your soulmate, would have grown until you lost your will to live. And I would've been forced to watch as you stopped eating, speaking, moving, and breathing, until all that remained of you, was a lifelike statue that would never decay, no matter how hard you tried to end it all."

Dimitri felt Voldemort's hand painfully tighten around his own, and he felt the man's need to suddenly hold him close, but his mind was stuck replaying Death's words over and over again. The fight left him and he was left feeling hollow and empty. Death had done all of this to save him…but…how was he supposed to feel when it was at the cost of his friends' souls?

~Voldemort~

Voldemort had known that the letter would bring only pain, and he suddenly wished that he'd merely buried the letter somewhere before covering the area with a mountain, or an active volcano, surrounded by a deep ravine and surrounded with deadly cliffs.

His mate was hurting and he was unable to do anything to lessen the pain.

His chest felt like he'd been kicked by a hippogryph and for a moment, he regretted being whole once more. He'd forgotten how much pain one could feel once your soul was whole. It was part of the reason why he'd split his soul in the first place. An idea suddenly occurred to him and he snapped his gaze up towards Death, only to find the entity watching him with a peculiar expression on his face.

(A/N: Hi all, sorry for the late update. I wanted to update the fic yesterday but with all the building going on, the house is a disaster zone and I had to move things around just to make enough space to set up a table and my computer. Hope you enjoy it! Thank you for all the Kudos and reviews , I REALLY live for them because they make my day.)