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Harry Potter and the Breath of Life

"Dark magic twists. It burns, it corrupts, it rots, it stains...the stronger it is the faster it turns untainted men and women into monsters. Nothing can justify using dark magic and nothing ever will. It's more than evil, it's a blight that should never have existed. The laws are legitimate and the Ministry's only purpose is to protect and serve the populace that put it in power. We would never even consider betraying this trust but the fact remains that we may have to do what is necessary. Dark magic destroys. This is not threat, but an inevitable fact. There is no 'making it better,' there are no 'good intentions' behind its use! Dark magic is defined by the base desires needed to cast it! We don't want to create a division in the magical community but all of us are urged, for the good of society, to report suspicions, turn in Dark artifacts, and comply with the recent decrees regarding Dark creatures. We have little choice but no one wants to see a loved one descent into madness." - Reginald Aldus Bones, Wizemgot


"Why?"

Palquenta blinked, only once in a quick almost startled fashion but in Truth she had expected the inquery. The boy was strangely fascinating, kneeling on the ground by Osiris as he absently flexed his fingers. Black hair on top that he didn't seem inclined to cut and those green eyes that had been so familiar it hurt, it was no wonder Death didn't like him and her Thana became a bit clingy. They had been cut from the same bolt of cloth, it seemed. Or at the very least, their Threads in the Weave intertwined.

She turned her head away from the boy for a moment as she processed the thought. No one could see the Weave now and it made his question a bit uncomfortable. What if she had been destined to fail from the very beginning? No one would protest that Osiris had died in the manner and at the time he was supposed to, he was dead, wasn't he? If he was not to live again, then what was she doing?

In the face of Everything even an Incarnate, whose untimely death would spell the end of all, was nothing. The Weave could not be changed.

Her Thana held no faith in that one simple Truth. She had known that from the moment Osiris died and Life had forced itself, it and the foreign emotions, memories and connections, onto her. With it came Thana's previously untouched revelation that she could change Everything.

It came through a link that was then thoroughly abused for millenia with Death Incarnate's uncontrollable hate, jealousy and disgust until she taught herself how to shut it off.

Palquenta frowned then, shying away from that train of thought onto another. If Everything could be changed, did it not mean that it's new altered state had already been woven into the Weave? Regardless of what Death broke or killed, nothing would have truly changed. It's futile.

But if she did believe that, then why...?

No one could see the Weave right now. No one could tell her that she would fail with certainty. She knew what the outcome would most likely be but she had to try. It made no true sense, it was improbably at best and absurd at the worst. Pal looked at the boy intently, rolling words and phrases around in her head as she thought about what to say. The thing had taken her silence to be a refusal to answer and was still carving out the tiny runes into his palms like she had told him to. She thought about the boy, and realized he had no way of explaining her decision.

If she had told him in Sparta, he would have understood the half formed sentences and vague concepts after some thought. But she could see that he had already Forgotten too much.

"Life meddles," she began in a certain tone. Nostalgic? "If left on its own, Life breeds and replenishes. It is a passive force that permeates Everything mostly unchecked and unguided." Her voice suddenly hardened as she remembered her least favorite aspect of it. "It's also weak. Strong enough to overtake mortals, strong enough to dominate Spawns, strong enough to keep things living underneath Death's notice but nothing else."

The boy was frowning openly up at her. "But, what does that have to do with-"

She cut him off. If she allowed him to explain his question, she couldn't continue acting as if she didn't understand it. "Death is the lesser evil. Always will not grant me an audience and I refuse to approach the Opposite. Life would intercede so I removed it. You showed me that Death could contradict itself, it is the only way." And it was, she didn't want a copy but to snatch Osiris' soul back from Judgment itself.

Green eyes blinked in surprise. "I did? When?"

Easy question. "Sparta."

At first, his face crinkled in confusion before he remembered. "The first present...but contradict itself?"

"You hurt her," she couldn't help telling him wih glee before quickly sobering. "You hurt me too then. A third wheel is not as glamourous as it sounds."

"It doesn't sound glamourous," the thing told her solemnly and she almost smiled. A third wheel had torn the shut pathways open only for her to discover that her link to Thana had practically atrophied. There were brief flickers that she caught sometimes: amusement, resignation, anger and recently regret and affection. They weren't for her but for a boy who couldn't receive them. She had become the third wheel somehow. The revelation hurt.

"Quite. Are you finished?"

"I'll be able to bring my parents back..." he murmured not-quite-inaudibly as he showed her his bleeding hands. His eyes were wider than they had been a moment ago, as if just realizing that it really was possible. They'd be copies, but they would be real. Idly, she reached out and yanked the lingering Life from the Chamber's basilisk. There was no need for it anymore and the sudden balance shift killed it on the spot. She teased around with the idea of taking the traces of artificial Life from that girl in the castle as well, but dismissed the notion as being petty.

"Let us begin!"


Somewhen, between the first time he saw her by that tree and now, Pal had lost her mind.

Of that, Harry was 100 percent sure. What he wasn't sure of was whether she actually had a mind to lose or was just good at hiding the lack for short periods of time. It was a lot like dealing with the Dursleys, Uncle Vernon in particular. She had the power to make him miserable-

--And come down with a case of dead-- a whisper interjected with a bit less snark than it usually did.

And she knew it. She didn't think highly of him and seemed to greatly cherish something else that his very existence was threatening. He could guess that the "something" was the status quo. Normality, just like his uncle. It could also be "her" Thana. For all he knew, it could be a strange case of those weird fetishes the older Slytherin boys had joked about once or twice when Snape wasn't around. It was...an interesting image...

--Naughty, naughty boy...--

Stuff it.

"Your bracelet..."

Harry refocused hesitantly at Pal's sly tone. "What about it?"

"You will have to use it." Something shifted uneasily in Harry's head after this declaration, even as the blonde woman smiled patiently. "It's a link. More carefully controlled, of course but the function is the same."

--Harry...-- the whisper began to warn but he was already two steps ahead. "This won't hurt Thana, will it?"

"No pain, at least," she said crpytically. "Surely that is good enough?"

That was all Harry needed to know and with only a few seconds of hesitation, he laid his cut hands on the body. Just beyond where the frames of his glasses hid, the gree runes that decorated the Chamber flared. With his right hand he fished around for the obsidian bracelet, which squirmed like a real snake, trying to escape. He almost dropped it when he first felt it move, stone usually doesn't do that, but a second later he reflexively tightened his grip. This was the key. He held it out in front of him, left hand still clutching the green and gold robes, and tried to feel nothing.

It was easier and harder than last time. For one, he didn't have a chatty Eternity in his head last time.

--This is big stuff, Harry. You don't know what this could do to you--

Life is here and Thana won't let me die. What could go wrong?

--How about...everything!?--

You aren't making any sense. Now shut up, I'm trying to concentrate! With a huff, Eternity did just that and Harry closed his eyes as he began to let everything drain away. He visualized, as he had last time, a power stemming from a void slowly becoming infused with the obsidian snake in his hand. A blue glow crawling up the black, hard body until it reached the head...his heart was threatening to beat out of his chest. This would work! It had to!

--If this is what you want...-- Eternity fumbled around softly. --You need to tell the Chamber--

"That's easy," he murmured aloud. "I want him to li-" A hand, cool and firm, clamped around his mouth.

"I think I have let this gone far enough, don't you, Palquenta?"

Thana. Harry's eyes popped open as wide as dinner plates. He tried to say something, but with her hand in the way it was nothing but, "Em muhg juch goin beurgh" Afterwards, he wasn't even sure what that was supposed to be, so he had the feeling she wouldn't know either.

"I have no idea what you just said," she informed him bluntly, making him turn a bit red in the face as he was suddenly very aware that that his back was against her...um... "But feel free to keep quiet." He nodded and the hand came off.

"A reunion, of sorts," Pal drawled coldy, flicking imaginary dirt from her fingernails. "How touching!"

He felt Thana stand up, humming in dark amusement. "You really do hate me, don't you?"

The answer was the ugliest snarl Harry had ever seen on anyone's face, ever. It beat Uncle Vernon's by twenty kilometers and Snape's by at least ten. At least. And Snape had the most unattractive face Harry had ever seen on top of that too, so that was saying something. He opened his mouth but Pal sent him a venomous glare that clammed it right up with a vengence. And to think, she was almost civil towards me... Eternity just snorted.

Thana just stepped up beside him and knelt down by the corpse, an odd little smile on her face as she reached out and touched the man's face gently. Gently enough to trigger a decent amount of jealously in both the boy and Life Incarnate.

"Osiris," Harry beat Pal to it. "Right?"

Death's Incarnate sighed wistfully."You would have liked him, Harry. He was incredible."

"Was incredible," Pal interjected harshly before softening. "You should not have a problem with me taking him back from your grip, my Thana."

"My grip..." Thana repeated, momentarily looking stricken before she shook her head and nudged Harry with her shoulder. "By using him, hmm?" She put on an exaggerated thinking face, complete with her index finger tapping her chin. "I suppose it might have worked, had he not gone the same way as Harry's parents."

Harry's head snapped up so fast, he could hear and feel the audible crack of his neck. What?

--Oh...Thanatos, surely you did not...--

Pal's face purpled. "What did you do!?"

"So quick to accuse me of doing something..." Thana smiled as she held up a mocking finger. "You need a soul to copy, or to pull back into a body. Osiris and the Potters, no longer have one." It was if, suddenly, he didn't have a pair of lungs, just an empty and cold void in his chest where something frigtening was raging. He couldn't...couldn't breathe...they were gone? Really gone? Forever? His mind began to scramble for anything stabilizing. He could never bring his parents back, not even copies...why!?

"Harry..." His glasses were tenderly lifted off his face. "Boy, you're crying."

"My parents..." he caught a glimpse of Thana around the glass and there wasn't much. Just a dark haze. "No souls...why?"

She wiped the tears from his face and put his glasses back on. "Why?" She looked at him intently, weighing him; her pale blue eyes were slightly unfocused with thought. And then she came to a decision. "Because I destroyed them."

MONSTER!

Harry just stared as Thana only shrugged at Pal's declaration and smiled at him.

Something inside him shattered.

He raised his wand, and she looked at him. "It won't work, boy."

And at point blank range whispered the only spell that came to mind.

"Avada Kedavra."


She had been hoping that he would just simply forget about them. Anything that had been cast through Oblivion's Gate was, slowly but surely, erased from history. Obliviated. Forgotten. There was a reason why she didn't spend a lot of time encouraging him to try to bring his parents back. Just enough so he wouldn't be suspicious that she was hiding something after he brought back that girl, but not enough to have him dwell on it. By the time it mattered, he wouldn't have cared. But Pal had to interfere, she had to do something completely contrary to what Thana was planning and now...

She could have maniuplated him into accepting it. Passed off her fit of jealousy (Harry was hers!) into some bullshit about natural decaying of spirits, or simply said that they had been Judged, were unreachable now and she simply hadn't wanted to upset him. He would have been angry, but Pal wouldn't be able to deny it, and he'd get over it. If he had awoken when she first figured out what Pal was after, she could have even made him cling to her more. She had thought extensively about the possibilities but he had started crying. And she hadn't been able to do it.

Well, she could have. She had done so much to ensure that she wouldn't lose him and here she had gone and done it on purpose. It was one thing to be selfish; it was another thing to be selfish and hinder her own schemes in the process. But even as his face went cold, the sheer amount of relief she had felt...

Adi must have been mistaken. It was wrong for her to care about Harry, it was right. It...She...the word wouldn't come, not that she knew what she was looking for, but she would figure that out later.

He raised his wand and she felt a pang. "It won't work, boy." Boy. She could have slapped herself. Her mouth hadn't gotten the memo, it seemed. His eyes flared in response as he whispered two words and sent a death spell washing over her, black and twisted with the power she allowed him to take from her.

The little fool.

He's angry, I forgive him. And she did.

There was a sharp crack! that echoed through the Chamber and Thana knew his wand had given out. The donor was dead, and it was channeling something far more powerful and conrary to its very nature through it. The spell ended just as abruptly and for a while, Harry just stared at his broken wand. His eyes were just as glassy as the lenses they were behind, blank and unseeing. Thana uncomfortably diverted her gaze to Pal to discover the other Incarnate curled into a fetal position, spouting denials. It was pathetic, and she almost sneered but caught herself.

Monster.

"I'm going to kill Voldemort," Harry said dully and she glanced down in surprise. Not unexpected, but for him to say it out loud was new. "And Always as my witness, after him..." he clenched his fist around the splintered wand and raised his head. There was hate in his face. "After him, I'm coming to kill you."

There was a heavy click from within and her heart sank through the floor. Even if he changed his mind, it was a promise he had to keep.

So she smiled, and ruffled his hair. "I'll be waiting," and this time, she did it on purpose. "Boy."


Insanity was more than pleased. His "hunch" had been right, the boy was going to need a new wand and what a coincedence! He would likely attempt to kill Thanatos with it, as he had with his useless one. He needn't have ever worried that things wouldn't turn out as planned: Pal was too stubborn, Thana was only predictable in her ability to piss Pal off and make mistakes with the boy and the boy himself...the man known as Xenophilius Lovegood in the wizarding community banished his viewing window with a pout. He only wished Hel thought to inform him before using his daughter in whatever hair brained scheme she had in mind this era, but it wasn't as if a sick Phoenix would be too much trouble anyway.

Mystery was a genius. Him and Justice both. As well as himself, of course but really, he couldn't take the credit for this.

"You are far too happy."

Insanity just about choked on his tongue at the sudden and unexplained appearance of Kuan Yin, stern with her arms crossed. He got over his shock and quickly became all smiles. "Things are just going right for once, is all, my dear."

And then Empathy Incarnate smiled softly, taking him off guard. "Not everything goes as planned," she mused and he already knew she had misunderstood the reason for his joy. "But enough is set onto the correct path, wouldn't you agree?"

He let his face turn uncharacteristically serious. "Woman, I think you to be far too optimistic."


Far from my best work, but I'm a bit out of sorts, sorry! Anyhow, I imagine Harry's response to Thana's admission to be something similar to seeing Sirius fall through the veil, she had essentially destroyed them far beyond what Voldemort could have done. All because she didn't want to lose him to his own parents. I must say she screwed up, ne?