Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, Harry wouldn't be such a whiny, spineless boy and he wouldn't be friends with Ron. This is based off of "Death's Child" by Puck Silverbreeze; I only own the ideas that didn't come from other places, so don't sue me. :)

Prologue

Lily groaned softly as a feather light touch roused her from a deep sleep. Slowly she opened her eyes, unfocused eyes snapping sharply to the face of death above her as she gave a small gasp. The vision before her eyes was not something she could easily describe. The woman standing above her was supremely beautiful, an ethereal beauty that seemed to be beyond mortality. Raven black tresses fell from the top of the woman's head like a waterfall past her shoulders and down her back. The woman's soft almond shaped black eyes gazed into her own green eyes with a look that said I'm sorry. A perfectly proportioned nose flowed out of the eyes to rest above a pair of soft red lustrous lips curved into a very small smile that allowed small dimples to form under her high, regal cheekbones. Lily glanced down and noticed that the woman was adorned in a simple, but very finely crafted, traveling cloak. Black with silver lining, the cloak seemed perfectly fitted to the woman's perfect frame. Lifting her eyes back to the woman's, Lily looked deeply, trying to discern who this woman was, what did she want, and most importantly, why is she only feeling peace?

Pondering on this thought, Lily began searching the woman's eyes more intensely. Gradually, she began to notice that there was one detail that she had overlooked in her first inspection. The woman had a tattoo around her right eye. A shimmering black tattoo of the Eye of Ra. Lily paled as the implications trickled into her brain and she recalled several myths and legends that referred to a woman and the Eye of Ra. Licking her lips fearfully, Lily spoke to the woman in a cracked whisper, "Are you Death? The one referred to as Death of the Endless?"

The newly discovered Death replied in an equally soft whisper, "I am."

Lily's eyes widened as she spoke more fervently, "It's my time to die, isn't it."

"Yes, young one, it is,'' replied Death gently as she gently placed a hand on Lily's arm.

Lily's eyes filled with tears as she implored, "What about Harry? And James? Are they going to die as well?"

Death sighed and patted Lily's arm, "James will die as well,'' here Lily gasped and started to cry, Death quickly continued, "but Harry will live; that is my promise."

Lily's eyes closed, tears running down her face, "At least Harry survives." Then her eyes snapped open and looked at Death intensely, "If I assume right and Voldemort is the one who kills us, then why are you here now? Voldemort hasn't attacked us yet."

Death nodded, "Because once approximately every 1,000 years I take the place of one mortal for one day. This allows me to directly interact with the mortal world and correct imbalances and set things in motion to right the world of wrongs committed against me. I chose you because if I didn't, than Harry won't survive the night and he is a Ta'veren, or a nexus in the weaves of fate, a Child of Prophecy. It is critical that he survives. Otherwise, the world will be thrown into millennia of darkness and death. I don't like it when people come to me early; they need to come at the proper time. Harry is going to be the most powerful wizard of this age and he must destroy this Lord Voldemort otherwise he would reign for millennia without equal."

Lily smiled at the thought of her son being so powerful. She leaned over to James and gave him a soft kiss, then turned back to Death and closed her eyes, "Then I go to Death willingly with the knowledge that Harry will survive and end this war."

Death's eyes sparkled as she reached down and gently grabbed Lily's soul and pulled it from her body. Lily's soul formed into her own likeness after Death released her grasp. Then Death leaned over Lily's body and fell into the empty shell of Lily Potter.

Lily moved through the wall into Harry's room and looked down at him. He was sleeping peacefully with his thumb in his mouth. She chuckled at how cute he looked. Leaning over, she gently kissed Harry's forehead, "Goodbye Harry. Momma loves you more than Life itself." And with that, Lily faded into the afterlife.

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"

Death, in Lily's body, ran upstairs to Harry's room and set Harry down in his crib. She knew that Voldemort had already put up anti-apparition and anti-portkey wards and they had never established a floo connection. Besides, she only had a few more hours in this body before she would be forced to let it go. It was better this way, Lily would have wanted her last stand to be defending her son from Voldemort. Harry stood up and grabbed the crib, giggling. Tears streamed down the face of Lily Potter as she knelt down beside Harry's crib, "Hold still Harry."

Death pulled out a demonic silver dagger covered with blood red runes. She bent down and carved the All Seeing Eye of Ra around Harry's right eye, matching her own tattoo. Then she kissed it while powering a measure of her considerable power into it and through the rune, Harry. The glyph glowed briefly as it was activated, then the cuts healed over until it disappeared completely, as if it was never there. Then Death reached up and carved the sowilo rune into Harry's forehead. "Momma loves you Harry. I'll always love you.", and with that Death turned around, Lily's wand out. She didn't have to wait long.

With a bang the door burst open, cracking and splintering as it slammed against the wall, and Voldemort stepped into the room. "Ah, Lily Potter. Your husband put up a good fight, but in the end, he was a weakling. You can either stand aside and join me, or I will kill you."

Lily's face contorted with rage, "Never! I will never join you!" she shouted. Voldemort's voice got cold and quiet, "I will only ask you one more time. Stand aside you silly girl, stand aside."

In a whirl of speed, a cutting curse blasted from the end of her want straight towards Voldemort. Not missing a beat, Voldemort batted the spell aside with contemptuous ease. He then raised his wand faster than Lily could see and stated in an almost bored tone, "Avada Kedavra."

Lily didn't have time to dodge, she was hit straight in the chest and collapsed bonelessly to the floor. Death left Lily's body, her job done acting like Lily and setting events in motion to begin fulfilling the prophecy, moved over to stand next to Harry. Completely invisible to Voldemort's gaze, she knelt down next to Harry preparing to do her last act necessary to save Harry's life. Slowly, Voldemort walks over to Harry and looks into his emerald green eyes, staring at the prophesied one, the one who could kill him. Voldemort raised his wand in-between Harry's eyes, savoring the moment that he kills his only concern, "Farewell Harry Potter. Avada Kedavra!"

As the curse left Voldemort's wand, Death pressed a finger to the sowilo and poured as much power as she dared into the rune. Suddenly, a blood-red aura burst from Harry's body and blocked the curse. As the curse and aura fought, the Eye of Ra started glowing an angry dark purple. The curse fought against both auras for a moment, then bounced back and raced toward Voldemort.

Voldemort was so surprised, that he never had a chance to dodge and his own curse struck him straight in the chest. He screamed as his own magic was forced back on him, the power he put into the spell now shredding his own defenses and shoving his soul out of his body. As a last, desperate act, his magic exploded and blew the roof clean off, and started the wooden floor on fire.

Unnoticed in all the commotion, a small pure-black smokey form flitted across the room from Voldemort's body and into the sowilo rune cut into Harry's forehead. Harry screamed and Death whipped around to look just in time to see a part of Voldemort's soul enter Harry's open wound. Death put a finger back on the sowilo and was disconcerted to find that the piece of Voldemort's soul was trying to take over Harry's body. She quickly isolated Voldemort's soul and took his memories and knowledge and implanted them in Harry's subconscious behind a very strong barrier. Then she wiped that small part of Voldemort's soul clean and fused it with Harry's own, making his soul a little bit bigger and giving him more mental room.

All of the magic running through Harry had taken its toll. As soon as Death had finished working on Harry's soul, he collapsed into a very deep sleep, the Eye of Ra fading into nothingness.

Dumbledore rushed into the nursery, long flowing silver beard flapping under his arm, his deep blue robes covered in stars billowing around him, to find the room on fire and Voldemort's cloak crumpled on the ground with Lily's body collapsed in front of a peacefully sleeping Harry. Swiftly walking over to Harry's body, Dumbledore noticed the lightning bolt shaped scar on Harry's forehead. Dumbledore smiled as a line from the prophecy came back to him, '…and the Dark Lord shall mark him as his equal…'

"So this is the Child of the Prophecy", murmured Dumbledore as he waved his wand over Harry. A frown crept across Dumbledore's face as the readings came back to him and he peered more closely at Harry over his half-moon spectacles. Harry currently had the largest core he had ever seen in an infant. This would not do! Harry needed to be an average, meek boy so that he could play his part like a good little pawn. Again Dumbledore raised his wand and began casting spell after spell at Harry.

Dumbledore's mouth twisted into a vicious grin as Harry's magical core shrank until it was just a little bit smaller than an average wizard's core. Placing Harry back into the crib, Dumbledore walked out of the burning room to ask Hagrid to drop by the Potter's house. After Dumbledore left the house, Death became visible and ripped the spells off of Harry's magical core which expanded back to its original size. Then she pulled a blood red crystal out of a pocket of her robe. She reached in and placed the crystal into the center of Harry's core, which promptly began to be sucked into the crystal until his core seemed to be as small as what Dumbledore made it. This would throw off any mortal readings to believe that Harry had a smaller than average core. Death gently ran her fingers through Harry's hair and waited for Hagrid to show up and take Harry away from the burning building.

AN: Thank you all for reading my story. This is only my second so any and all advice is appreciated. Just so you know, I only write when the muse wants me to as such, updates are slow and inconsistent. But I do promise to continue working on this and my other story. Please review, that gives me extra motivation to write. If you have any ideas for how the story should go, please feel free to suggest.