Old Souls

A/N: And hear is the second chapter, Note that when I publish this I will have at least the first three chapters up but hopefully more like the first five. Anyway I hope you like this!

Chapter Song: Still Here - Digital Daggers

A Hard Bargain

Harry Potter knew he was dead, Had known he was dead for quite a while. The excruciating pain that had come when he had seen Hermione limply hit the floor and her dead brown eyes gazing directly into his own green ones had been a rather big clue. The second bigger one, however, was the place he had found himself in when he came back to himself. He was quite sure that such a grand place would never grace the earth even with all the magic in the world. The ridiculously high and rather meticulously painted ceiling alone would be impossible to create even with a couple of hundred years worth of work being poured into it. The Cathedral, well he thought it was a cathedral though he could be wrong having only seen one on the telly, was also several hundred Football fields wide and built out of what Hermione told him was white granite.

Oh, that was another reason he knew he had died. Hermione had been right beside him when he had come back to himself and had rather belligerently berated him for in her words 'Blowing himself up.' Still, he had been so glad to see her that he had rather not cared about the whole Dead thing until she deliberately brought it up several hours later.

"Well, I mean we are dead. That's the gist of what I got out of that man who came while you were still out of it. Oh, I forgot! When I woke up a man named Ugo (Rather strange name isn't it?) was here and he said that we were not really supposed to die for some time yet. Apparently, our deaths caused some kind of, well I suppose you would call it a paradox, and we were thrown far from where we were supposed to be when we died. Ugo stumbled upon us when he went to investigate just what had appeared in the Sacred Palace ( That's what this place is called. ) and he looked into our situation. He said that he would confer with his King and see just what he could do to help us." Harry was glad to see that nothing really had changed with her death as Hermione apparently still did not know how to control her nervous tic of verbal diarrhea. She had not even stopped for breath throughout that whole explanation. Harry frowned however as he glanced around and then down at his hands.

"Um, just a bit curious but why and how do we still have our body's intact?" The former Boy-Who-Lived asked as he wiggled his fingers on his knees shifting slightly as he sat cross-legged on the hard ground.

Hermione frowned back at him and then crossed her own arms after taking a long glance down at her chest as if she expected it to open up in a bloody mess at any second. He winced slightly at his own insensitivity, really he wouldn't be surprised if that was exactly what she thought. The bushy haired girl had just opened her mouth to reply when someone beat her to it.

"We actually do not know." the two kids almost jumped out of there skin as a deep male voice spoke from just to the left of them. Harry flailed about for a moment until he caught himself on his hands and wiped his head around to catch sight of who had just spoken. Judging by Hermione's startled look this was not the same man who she had previously met. He personally thought that this man, however, was plenty intimidating enough to be the guardian of such a grand place as the Sacred Palace, Or as Harry took a closer look at the man, he could be the King.

The man stood at about six foot two or so and was in a word, Regal. With exceedingly long blue-black hair as messy as Harry's own and sharp navy colored eyes that fixed the two children with a decisively puzzled look the man could have passed off as a great King of old and that was without counting his noble bearing. As it was the man was intimidating as hell.

Then his face cleared and he gave the two a small but honest smile that showed the tiny laugh lines beside his sharp blue eyes.

"Sorry for the scare but I wanted to see for myself just what Ugo was talking about. I believe I understand now. Hold on now child," He held up a hand as Hermione made to ask what would undoubtedly be a long series of questions and shook his head. "I do not have much time to explain and for that I am sorry. You two do not exactly belong here, at least not yet." He walked over to the both of them and held out his hands asking silently for there own in return. When they had both grabbed a hand he lifted them up to there feet and began to look them over with a critical eye.

"You see when you," The man pointed to Harry who pointed back to himself with a questioning look which won a slightly bigger smile from the man. "Yes, you. Broke the bindings that someone put on you, you basically created a paradox as you were not supposed to die before finishing a task but you vaporized your own body along with everything in that room." Hermione looked slightly nauseous at that explanation. "This had the effect of sending both your and your friend's soul far from where it should have been, as it was also fueled by the corrupt soul of that thing you were fighting. Now, while I personally do not mind you being hear, you are just children, after all, you can not exist hear without first living in the world below this one. I have the power to tie you two to the one below which will then allow you to come hear after you die once more." He paused and then looked them both in the eye.

"In truth I could have just added your souls into the flow of the Rukh or Magic hear, it would have even been easier but I need some help and I think that you two may just be able to turn things back to the way they were supposed to be. If you take me up on this not only will you retain your memories of each other but I will also help you when I can. What do you two say?" He asked. Hermione and Harry exchanged a look before nodding, they rather not forget each other and both had a hard time saying no to helping out someone. The man gave them a relieved look and then nodded letting go of their hands. Then he sighed and gave the two one last sharp look.

"I do warn you now, your arrival will be felt. You two were not really meant to exist yet I am writing you into the weave of fate. The Rukh will rejoice in your presence for you will bring change. This will attract bad and good attention. I apologize now for whatever may happen to you because of this. So I ask you two one last time do you truly want this?" The older male asked the two former students. Exchanging one last glance they both nodded with determined expressions and the man closed his eyes.

"So shall it be then." He said and waved a hand. The two vanished into thin air.

"Good luck." He stated to an already empty room before shaking his head and preparing to go himself.

Solomon sighed one last time before he too began to disperse into the Rukh once more. As he did so his eyebrow twitched and a slight expression of surprise slid across his face. The last words he said echoed around the room as he faded from sight.

"Oops, should have paid a bit more attention to that part….."

A/N: Annnnd Cut! That's a wrap up. I do hope you liked it and will favorit and review!