A Second Life
A/N; Sorry for the wait, but I have been away without access to the internet, however I have two chapters on this story ready to go so here is this chapter and I will put up the next one when I get some reviews from this one in case anyone picks up anything wrong. Please review.
Oh and for a certain reviewer who will go unnamed, I don't honestly care if you don't want to review this story and want to try and bribe me like that. I will review whichever story I want to. They are my stories, if you want a certain story updated ask nicely!
Chapter 5; Destiny
Unknown
When Harry first opened his eyes the first thing he saw was a vast amount of white. A blinding white that stretched into the far distance and stung at his eyes. His first impression was that he was in St. Mungo's for the hundredth time but he soon realised that he was in fact standing and it was this realisation that made him start to notice the woman stood in front of him.
She was youngish looking but it had been a long time since Harry had taken looks to be good indicators of the true nature of somebody so she could have been any age. She wore long simple white robes but they gave the impression that they could have easily been worn to any formal dinner or gathering and not seemed mundane. It was her eyes that drew Harry's attention the most; they were a deep gold colour and seemed to glow with a hidden light.
Harry waited patiently for her to speak, his training alongside the hit wizards came in handy as he waited the ten minutes out. Finally, however, the golden light in her eyes faded to reveal a simple blue colour and Harry released a breath that he hadn't even realised he had been holding.
"Harry James Potter." She spoke quietly and her words were not that of a question but a statement. Harry nodded anyway and tried to force a smile onto his face but was cut off before he had managed.
"You need not put on a brave face with us, Harry." She smiled, "We have known you since you were born and we knew your destiny since before. I am the Angel of Destiny, or at least one of the Angels of Destiny."
"I died then?" Harry spoke after a pause.
"Yes, you died, but don't worry Tom Riddle died also."
"Will he stay dead this time?" Harry spoke the question that voiced all his concerns about dieing in his attempt at Voldemort's life. What if he died only to return with no Harry Potter to kill him again.
The Angel's smile grew and became more caring. "His reign on Earth has ended, he will never return. He is evermore trapped in the Beyond. That we had ensured, no resurrection will be permitted though a few have already tried."
Silence rose for a few moments before Harry broke it finally. "Why are you here? Do you greet everyone that dies?"
The Angel lost her smile but not her friendly look. "We never normally greet those that pass into the beyond however with you we have made an exception because of your destiny."
"My destiny?" Harry was confused, "I thought I was finished with destinies."
"We are sorry Harry, but your destiny on Earth is not yet complete. You have been given a task never before given to any wizard." The smile returned. "After we are finished here you will pass to another place and meet with the Elders. You are to become a Whitelighter."
"Haven't I done enough already?" Harry asked in a whisper.
"It is true that your main destiny has been filled but your help is needed in other places where without you evil would conquer. You are a unique individual Harry, one that is needed in this coming time."
Thoughts of Jason rose in his mind and he sighed. "I really have nobody to move onto anyway that can't wait for longer. At least this way I can indirectly keep Jason safe."
She smiled brighter than ever before. "Do not worry yourself over that, you can visit the beyond at anytime. Now before you go a few tips are in order. Firstly you must stay hidden from the Wizarding world at all costs. They would not react well to your rebirth. Secondly, I must warn you that events are changing and nothing will stop that. The world that you belonged to will merge with the world that the sisters live in and that you will join. That is one of the reasons you have been chosen to become a Whitelighter. Witches will need the protection that you can provide. As such you will maintain many of your original powers. How they will react with the powers of the Whitelighter's is for you to discover."
After a small pause where Harry tried to assimilate all of the rapidly coming information he spoke up with a timid thank you.
The Angel started to fade from before his eyes. "One last thing Harry, your life with Jason is not yet finished, but it is his destiny to find you, not the other way around."
Before Harry could speak again she was gone and Harry found his eye's closing and after opening them again he found himself before a young man, slightly younger than himself.
"Hi Harry," spoke the figure, "I was sent by the Elders to greet you. Or rather I requested the task. I have the task of explaining what Whitelighter's were and to guide you in the transition to make sure you weren't too shocked over a sudden or brutal death." The man paused to raise an eyebrow, "However I know that an Angel of Destiny has already beaten us to it. I requested the job to warn you that you should not mention to anybody else about your meeting with an Angel of Destiny. It may cause you problems with some of the others."
"What do you mean?" Harry was confused again, he didn't like being confused.
"Your situation is unique, a wizard from your world has never been allowed to become a Whitelighter before, it is unheard of, and to make matters worse you are to keep your powers as well. Many of the Elders are already not pleased with this; they think that the power will corrupt you. They are scared of change and you are a herald of this."
"How do you know that I met an Angel of Destiny if none of the others do?"
"A few of the others know, but they were actually told by the Angels of Destiny themselves, but it would be odd for them to greet a new Whitelighter themselves as they haven't for a long time. As for me, I am a Seer and I saw it before you died."
"What else did you see?" Harry asked before he could stop himself.
The young man grinned mysteriously. "I saw your death and the Sister's involvement as it occurred. I am sorry that I could do nothing to stop you dying as you did, but it was the only way that could take Tom Riddle out without prolonging the war for many years to come. It was me that gave Paige you as her charge so that you would be introduced before the coming events."
"What coming events?"
"I can't answer that Harry." He replied, "Anyway, lets get you settled in and then I'll talk to you about your new charges."
"Settled in?"
"Yes, follow me." He said before turning. "By the way, my name is Joel."
They were soon settled in a rather white room after walking through corridors of what looked like a roman structure crossed with, for lack of a better description clouds. Joel told him that the place didn't really have a name so Harry dubbed it Olympus after the Home of the Greek Gods.
One of the first things Harry paid attention to in the room was the full length mirror on the wall beside the bed. It seemed that Death had been good to them. "As with all Whitelighter's your body has been reformed. Your old body was destroyed in the explosion, it's necessary in your case otherwise you would just a ghost, others would be missing limbs or look like they were just killed. You get the idea." Joel explained calmly. Harry was shocked. He looked almost identical as he had before he went to the restaurant with Jason except now he was devoid of any of his scars. Most noticeably was the lack of the infamous killing scar. He dimly noticed that his normally magically spiked silver streaked hair was lying normally but he brushed it off and decided to leave it be.
"Most Whitelighter's spend most of their time up here. Some stay with their charges depending on who they are. From here you can travel to Earth and hear the calls of your charges. Also you will be able to sense your newer charges easier from up here better then when you are on Earth which may come in handy until you have formed better bonds with them."
"How does time work up here compared to on Earth?" Harry asked, surprising himself that in all the confusion he had asked something intelligent.
"It runs parallel; one hour up here is equal to one hour down there. Though I warn you there is no real following of time up here. The elders don't spend much time on Earth so they don't follow the whole night/day thing. It's pretty much this bright all the time. I've been an Elder for about four years now and I'm still getting used to it. You'll find your own pattern but I wouldn't suggest you worry about it."
"What do you mean?" Harry started to ask but was interrupted before he could finish.
"I'll explain later when I explain your charges." He explained, "Firstly, let's sort out your powers."
"The Angel said I would keep some of my old ones." Harry put in.
"That's part of what I caught in the conversation. Since I don't really know your powers or what you'll keep or how it will affect your new Whitelighter powers I will run you through the three parts of your new powers and then we'll see how they have affected your old ones. That sound reasonable?"
"Sure, I would've thought you'd want to know all of my old powers too." Harry pointed out.
"You'd be right, but I'll only get grilled by the others about what you can do, and I'd rather watch their faces when you actually use them. Though there are a few things we'll discuss later about them." Joel smirked. "Let's start with the simplest of the three."
The first they went over was seeking out and hearing the calls of his charges but Harry found that easy to grasp as he could already seek out and follow bonds. The part about hearing the calls was similar to when Jason used to speak in his mind. He just found it much easier to seek them out, he no longer had to concentrate and exclude the rest of the world.
They paused for a brief break and started to eat a small pile of biscuits when Joel picked up on Harry's suddenly very depressed state. "What's wrong Harry?"
Harry looked up and met Joel's eyes. "It's Jason," he finally stuttered out. A look of dawning appeared on Joel's face. "I noticed when we were searching for the bonds that my Soulmate's bond is completely gone. It's like a chunk of me is missing and I never felt it leave. Like someone cut off my arm and I didn't feel it go, it's just absent. I can't imagine what it must be like for Jason right now."
"I'm really sorry Harry. I know why the Angels of Destiny have chosen you but not why they broke one particular rule. We never accept Soulmates as Whitelighters; it keeps them apart in death. Jason's existence is one of the reasons some of the Elder's are against you joining us, but they have been vetoed by the Angels of Destiny on this one. They can't remove your status."
Harry looked at Joel. "The Angel said that it is Jason's destiny to find me."
Joel started to say something, stopped, looked at Harry again. "That's why then. The Elder's told me to tell you that they have banned you from seeing Jason. To let him get over your death. It would be best if you followed that rule, especially after what the Angel of Destiny told you."
After that they got onto learning the last two aspects of Harry's new Whitelighter powers. His healing power was new to him but he found it easy to muster as he was already powerful in wandless magic and this was just another form of it. The only real differences were the fact that he could heal any wound no matter how serious unless the person was dead, that it wasn't Harry's magic that was being drained but a higher magic that he was tapping into and that the light was silver rather than the described gold. A taint caused by the Dark Phoenix in Harry, Joel guessed but something that shouldn't really affect it.
The last aspect was Harry's orbing. He had seen Paige do it and wondered what he would prefer. "We already know that you can apparate and element travel when in your Phoenix form but we don't know how adding orbing to your list will effect the others. My best guess would be that you will keep your elemental travel whilst in your Phoenix form but not be able to orb."
Harry tested that out and changed into his Phoenix form for his training in orbing only to find after fifteen minutes of patience and concentrating that Joel was right. He switched back to human form and concentrated on the other side of the room. When he reopened his eyes again he found himself watching Joel spin on the spot to see him.
"Did it work?" Harry asked.
"Almost the same as an orb," Joel explained after shaking his head slightly, "You turned into the orbs but then they just collected together and vanished before reappearing where you are now, spreading apart and turning back into yourself."
"Usually you just float upwards as orbs for a while right?" Harry asked.
"Technically, you travel the whole distance as orbs but just keep spreading out so the orbs are too small to see. Its take more time than your method it seems. I'd guess that you've combined your orbing with apparition because you have the stealth of orbing but speed of appartion. Why don't you try apparating?"
Harry tried but at first nothing happened. He could feel the miniscule drain on his magic and traced its link to find a human shaped web in front of him that after shaking his head slightly he walked into and found himself walking out on the other side of the room. He took in Joel's slightly shocked look and did it again but thought of the web appearing behind him.
He explained it to Joel and realised that if he didn't look for the web it didn't appear but was just there and that it looked to anyone else that he just faded as he took the step. They dubbed the skill 'Stepping.' They talked over its uses and decided it would be useful for sneaking about as he just disappeared with no crack of displaced air and no lights of orbing. Joel said he should be careful about appearing in front of witches with it as he looked a lot like the more powerful Demons method of travelling.
"Ok, a few last things before I give you your charges." Joel said after Harry had spent about two hours practicing his new powers and trying out a few spells from his 'life' as he dubbed it. Simply he'd discovered that he could still cast any of his wandless magic but without a focus he was stuck on the other spells. "I'd suggest staying away from a focus of any kind if possible; they're too easy to track by your ministry even if they're tracking ability is weaker across the Atlantic."
Harry agreed with that. Being an Unspeakable meant that he knew all of the details about the Ministry's tracking abilities. "Also, since your body was never actually discovered a lot of people, including your old department are trying to locate you through magic. They can't track you in your human form as long as you are up here but if you take this form on Earth you'll appear on their sensors."
"They can't track my Phoenix form, The Department of Mysteries spent ages with me trying to find a way and they could only do it if I wanted to be found." Harry said after working out what he was getting at.
"Precisely, I'd suggest staying in your Phoenix form whenever you are on Earth, obviously you wont be able to use your Whitelighter abilities but you will still be about to hear your charges and our calls and can still travel and heal easy enough."
"That's fine, I can be the protective Phoenix to my charges." Harry said cheekily.
"Most witches won't know what a Phoenix is apart from legends and to be honest you don't look much like the legendary Phoenix. I know that the Sister's book of magic has a section on Phoenixes with a description of both types. The other charge we have in mind for you happens to be a bit of a bird watcher so it should be easy enough to get on his good side."
"Other charge, you mean that the Sister's are one of my charges." Harry caught his slip easily.
Joel nodded to show he was caught, "Your right but not completely. With Paige around they don't necessarily need a new Whitelighter even if Paige's healing abilities are only just starting to work fully. Your charges are actually Piper's two sons. They haven't actually had one designated and we know that Leo, they're father, being an ex-elder is confused as to why they haven't been given one yet."
"Why not then?" Harry asked.
"The Angels of Destiny told us to wait, and to be honest many of the Elders were worried about how powerful they will become. They are your permanent charges. You will remain with them for their lives. They need a powerful guardian. I can see why the Angels of Destiny wanted us to wait."
Harry nodded. "What about the other one?"
"He is a temporary job." Joel said, "He is a witch, but rarely uses his above average power. His obsession with rare magical birds and his ability to talk to them however has attracted the attention of a few powerful demons. You're the perfect choice of protection as you will be able to talk to him as a Phoenix. Phoebe has already had a premonition about him and it is actually they're job to protect him but he needs help before they find him and it will also mean that they will find out about Phoenixes from him before you appear to them. Don't mention to Damien, your charge, that you are a Whitelighter, it will only confuse issues and he will tell the Sister's who will probably force your transformation and we already have covered how that would be a bad thing."
Joel grinned before continuing, "You can introduce your Phoenix form to the Sister's at any time but if you want my advice I would wait till they have the chance to get information on you from Damien, it hurts rather a lot to be blown up by Piper according to Leo even if it can't kill you."
"Right, so it's all really complicated then?" Harry laughed, "At least I'm trained in complicated! How about you show me to this Damien then."
A/N; Thanks for my reviewers.
Yournombrehere; There isn't going to be any changes with Jason's powers but he will become more powerful as the soul mate bond shares out Harry's powers. Harry's will not weaken though. For more information see the first chapter.