Magic and the Order of the White Lotus

It was a pure white that Harry woke up to. That was subject to interpretation of course, given that he had just been murdered, but then he supposed if there was cognisance of his surroundings, then his consciousness was here with him. That had to count for something. Then he realised that he was naked. That, even in the slightly scary loneliness that pervaded this place, was embarrassing. He wished he had some clothes, and just as he did, almost as if he were in some kind of Room of Requirement, there appeared a bundle of them for him.

The only problem was that they were weird. They looked more like robes, but something he could imagine the Orientals wearing. Still, something was better than nothing, he supposed.

Then two different sounds – or three – roused him from his contemplation of his surroundings. One was a thumping and whimpering mixed together. The other was a pair of footsteps. And the third was an odd flute-y wind instrument that he could swear he had never, ever heard before. It was soothing though, and felt achingly familiar. He just couldn't place it, for the life – ah, that was an unfortunate turn of phrase. He wished the mist would clear up, so he could at least know what was going on.

As if on command, the mist cleared up.

Harry turned slowly on the spot and his surroundings seemed to invent themselves before his eyes. It was a wide open space, yet cosy, with the unmistakable ambience and furnishing of the Gryffindor common room. It was quite empty. He was the only person there, except for –

He recoiled. He had spotted the thing that was making the noises. It had the form of a small, naked child, curled on the ground, its skin raw and rough, flayed-looking, and it lay shuddering under a seat where it had been left, unwanted, stuffed out of sight, struggling for breath.

He was afraid of it. Though it was small and fragile and wounded, he did not want to approach it. Nevertheless he drew slowly nearer, ready to jump back at any moment. Soon he stood near enough to touch it, yet he could not bring himself to do it. He felt like a coward. He ought to comfort it, but it repulsed him.

"You cannot help it, son," said a husky, old and inexplicably familiar voice – one that he simply couldn't have heard before.

"Indeed you can't Harry, you brave, brave, wonderful man," spoke a second person. This was a very familiar voice, and one that he couldn't help but slightly resent.

"My little soldier boy did come marching home, after all," the other voice said.

Turning around, Harry saw that his reception committee consisted of two very old gentlemen – Dumbledore, and an unmistakably Asian person, or at least someone he would have placed in ancient imperialist Japan. He did know enough muggle history for that.

"Come, my dear boy, let us walk. Even death cannot honestly welcome that which seeks to defy it with evil so dangerous, it hurts the Universe," the other old man said. "Tea?" he offered.

"I am dead, that was the Horcrux, and you are here to receive me?" Harry asked Dumbledore mechanically, just to confirm.

"In order, not necessarily, yes, and yes," answered Dumbledore genially. He didn't seem to be dismayed at Harry's very apparent irritation at all.

"Am I supposed to understand that?"

"As it is always with the young, they prefer he directness of a lion-pup," the other old man remarked. "Tea?" he offered again, just as patiently as before.

Harry gave the man a strange look before he accepted the earthen cup and took a sip of the bitter liquid and nearly spat it out. "That's just bitter boiled leaf-juice!"

"And you haven't changed, at all, my son," the man happily claimed.

"So I am dead and insane as well?" Harry mumbled exasperatedly to nobody in particularly. "Sorry, sir, but I really can't be your son," Harry told the man with forced patience.

"You are ours," two voices answered, and these were more than welcome, as James and Lily shimmered into view. "But so are you his, Prince Lu Ten."

"Indeed you are, cousin," Sirius remarked.

"Okay; all of you stop. Can someone tell me exactly what is going on here? I just expected to be dead. You know, just normal dead, not breathing, not existing anymore?" he added sarcastically.

"Would you care to, Schemer?" asked the old man of Dumbledore. Well at least they could agree upon this.

"I suppose I shall. Harry, it is time that I tell you about the Order."

"I know about the Order of the Phoenix," Harry shortly replied.

"You do, yes. I was talking, however, of the Order of the White Lotus. It is an ancient order, one that doesn't belong to our world, but to other worlds that we coexist with. One of the worlds, in its slightly more medieval settings than you'd believe of the magical world, shares a mastery over the elements, Fire, Earth, Water and Air, which they called bending. That world along with several others is joined through the realm of Death to ours. They call it the Spirit World. This gentleman was, in life, the Grand Lotus of the Order, and has traversed the Spirit Realm, showing the path to lost souls. His name is General Iroh."

Harry stared at him open-mouthed.

"Harry?" Dumbledore called.

Harry looked around in what could now easily be recognised as sarcastic wonder. "And would you believe that? Albus "I know something you don't, and I am not telling" Dumbledore can talk straight! Wow! I never thought you could do that! Is it death, Professor? If it is, it certainly makes you more bearable!"

"Ah...well, that was intentional."

"Was it now?" growled Harry. "It was intentional you say. Did you bloody WELL INTEND FOR SO MANY PEOPLE TO DIE? HOW MANY MORE DEATHS AM I SUPPOSED TO SEE, YOU IDIOTIC OLD COOT? OR MAYBE, SINCE IT WAS YOUR INTENTION TO SEE ME HERE, MURDEROUS CONSPIRATOR?"

"Now, now, such an expression of the inner fire and power is alright on the battlefield, but it hardly warrants turning everything into the battlefield..." General Iroh chid.

"I don't have any patience for this. I just learnt that my Headmaster..."

"Please son, listen to him," his mother quietly ordered.

"Not the Headmaster, Harry, it was me who wanted to see you here, my beloved son. You have a greater destiny ahead."

Harry couldn't even dismiss it as a bad dream.

"How exactly am I your son?"

"You see, on our world, we have some very important events – one is called the Harmonic Convergence which occurs once every ten thousand of our years, which is about a third of the same time in your Earth's time, one is the complete Solar Eclipse which doesn't occur as frequently it does in your world, and the third is the appearance of Sozin's Comet which comes every hundred of our years. These are very peculiar, for the Eclipse takes away the power of firebenders for its entire duration while the Comet gives them the power of a thousand suns. And the Harmonic Convergence is our form of the ultimate battle between Good and Evil. It is this particular set of events that are occurring together on our world. Like the cycle of seasons, everything has to start, everything has to end, and then restart eventually."

"I do not understand."

"Fire, my boy, is Life. On the day of the Harmonic Convergence, there will be an Eclipse and there will be the reappearance of the Comet, all at the same time. Life will be empowered and snuffed out simultaneously. Our bending will be lost."

"So you are shifting to our earth?"

"No, child," James explained. "You know how waves are? Consider bending as a trough and magic as a crest, or the other way round. Slowly, magic will replace bending completely in their world..."

"While bending replaces magic in ours!" realised Harry.

"Exactly!" commended Iroh. "I am still amazed that you do not remember, my boy, because you volunteered to go to the new world for a specific task..."

"About that, General," James interrupted, "one doesn't remember if one has ties to life."

"Ah...I wondered."

"What's that supposed to mean Dad?"

"It means you aren't really dead. You can go back. You actually should go back," James replied, though he gave Iroh a deferring look with a grin.

"To defeat Tom?" asked Harry bitterly.

"No, Harry," Dumbledore solemnly answered. "You see, that world has known about the coming tide for about a four centuries now – their centuries, and that's twelve hundred of our years, something that has nothing to do with temporal displacement across the worlds. I am still unsure how it works. It was necessary for someone to reach out to the other world, and that was where the story of the three brothers came from. I was the only one before you who held the Wand, but chose not to use it. I searched to evade Death to bring back what was lost but realised the vileness and futility of the act. That was how the Grand Lotus found me. I was the Grand Lotus among the living, and I helped all members once I was sure of their identity. And that is now your job."

"You will take my position, son."

"Why do you call me son?"

"The spirit world houses the souls of all worlds. And it also helps the souls go to others. You came here from our world long before I did, which was why I was searching through it, my son. As I addressed you before, on our world, you were my son, Prince Lu Ten, my Heir."

"You mean I am not originally...?"

"Who can say?" Iroh wondered with a shrug. "You might have been from Earth that you now inhabit before you became Lu Ten. You might have been from someplace else. However, it was as Lu Ten that you chose to go after Vaatu. He was working over the past century in that world."

"Who's Vaatu?"

"Vatu is the Spirit that represents Evil."

"Can't it be destroyed?"

"Vaatu can hardly be destroyed as can Raava. For Good to be understood, it must have context and meaning, and that is what Evil provides. One can never exist without the other, my son."

"So I chose to be Harry Potter?"

"Yes. You chose your destiny, Lu Ten. You chose to hold off the one under Vaatu's sway till the tide turned and bending and the spirits had greater access to the New World. For only Raava can truly hold him, and for that we need the Avatar."

"That's not me, is it?"

"Most assuredly, no, it isn't you."

"Are there any other members? Were they my friends?"

"I confess that I did encourage your friendship with Ms. Lovegood. She was after all, the only one I knew who could see the Spirit World. I would not be surprised if she became the first Avatar on our Earth, with Air as her Element."

"Why Air?" asked Harry, now genuinely curious.

"Harry – I shall call you that because that is how I have known you – you do not think that the four Founders' animals were just their favourite animals, did you? The flaming Lion of Gryffindor, so similar to Lion-pups, and all our decoration has always lent itself to Fire, don't you see? The Badgers were inspired from Badger-Moles, the original Earthbenders. The Raven-Jays were the inspiration for the detached, academic and mostly spiritual Air Nomads' birds, though of course, I don't know any truly spiritual Ravenclaws anymore. And Salazar, as always, chose the Unagi, a water serpent. Indeed, he was of the belief that with such strong motifs, there already were benders here. And given that our world has Dragons too... It was why he left Hogwarts, on a fruitless search...not to kill muggleborns."

"Such lies must have hurt you, my friend," Iroh consoled.

"YOU were Salazar Slytherin?" Harry asked in shock.

"I was once, yes," Dumbledore answered. "As Albus Dumbledore, however, I was neither a Parseltongue nor could I understand or remember more than some rudimentary phrases. I assure you, I would have subdued my Basilisk otherwise."

"Is there anyone else who was on earth or still is from the other world? And for that matter, can you tell me who you were? Have I met them?" He decided that he was already beyond surprises.

"As I matter of fact, yes there were many," answered Sirius, who had been largely silent. "James, your blood father, was in fact Bumi, the King of Omashu. Lily was Sister Iola, of the Air Nomads." The three transformed into people that Harry now could faintly recognise. Maybe he was spending too long in the spirit world, Harry thought, even as Sirius transformed into a man with the left side of his face burnt. "I was your cousin, Fire Lord Zuko. I told you about Uncle Alphard. Uncle Iroh was my Uncle again. Of course, I tried to be tall, dark and broody, but then having King Bumi reincarnate as one's best friend rather changes one's outlook." Then his face twisted into agony. "You have also met my sister, Azula. She did manage to kill me, finally."

"Bellatrix was this Azula?"

"Oh yes... and you know Katara, she is Hermione now. Gyatso was always absurd, at least I think so from what Aang used to say, and I think Luna is him. I know Toph's there somewhere. In fact, there was this one aggravating General of the Earth Kingdom, one General Fong. You know him, Rufus Scrimgeour."

"We actually lived across two worlds and never realised it," marvelled Harry as he looked at his companions. "What happens now?"

"On the Summer Solstice four years hence, our worlds will be at the point of overlap. Magic will start waning. You shall find it within yourself too. You will have to scour the world for benders. The discovery of benders is sudden, across all ages, and scary. There might be large-scale disruptions. So you will have to be the Grand Lotus and use the Statute of Secrecy to explain it away as magic for the time being. You will have to help set up secluded areas, because our world is vastly different from theirs," Dumbledore explained.

"Indeed," added Lily, "many muggle governments will try to learn the secrets of bending. Your job will be to get to these people before anyone else does."

"Great, another quest," Harry groaned.

"A necessary one, all the same," James pointed out. "No one said you can't make a world trip out of it," he added with an odd grunting laugh. Then he added seriously, "Keep an eye out on tabloids, Harry. Often that which is ignored as nonsense is the most authentic."

"And remember to visit the Poles and keep watch," Iroh reminded, before adding with a smile, "Now there are someone who want to meet you."

Behind him a person shimmered into existence. A person he was going to dearly miss.

"Don't worry mate," Ron, who reached over first and embraced his best friend said. "You are going to win. Everything will be alright."

"I am sorry," Harry gasped.

"You should be if you moan and whine here, mate. Well, anyway," he started abruptly, "since everyone's telling things, I must do so too. You've got to visit the far-east. You will learn a lot there." He chuckled at his friend's expression. "Yes, you need to learn. And yes, I'm saying that."

"We'll miss you, mate."

"Yes well, I don't get to be your best man now. Maybe I'll become a lion-turtle next."

"You sound more and more like Luna every day."

"That I do," Ron replied wistfully. "Goodbye Harry. Send him to Koh's Lair for me."

"I will."

Harry gave a very mortal sigh as he came back to life again.