Chapter 7: Located

The next day Harry's lessons started and even though he had been to school before, it was nothing compared to this. Instead of just having to listen to a teacher talking about this or that and being expected to understand everything or learn at home, here he was actively involved at all times. His teachers - sometimes it was his mother, sometimes Death, depending on the subject - always made sure he understood what they were telling him and if he really didn't get it they didn't continue until they were certain he had understood what they wanted to say. It was really helpful, even though that meant that sometimes he only managed to learn one or two things in his two-hour lessons.

Of course, the concept of living two days instead of one needed a while to get used too, but after a few weeks it didn't feel as confusing anymore. Also, he had every Sunday completely for himself, which meant two days to relax and play with the Thestrals and Grims or simply read an interesting book. Sometimes his mother even read to him as long as he turned the pages since she obviously couldn't do so. It was really great!

On the other hand, even during his free time he sometimes couldn't help but learn a little bit more, because many of the things he learned weren't as boring as he had feared! The 'muggle basics' might not have been part of that (really, he understood why he needed to know basic maths and things like the human anatomy were interesting too, but he couldn't care less about geography and history wasn't really his best class either) but everything else just seemed to have so much potential! Sure, he still wasn't allowed to use a wand yet but at least he learned the basics of Magic, Herbology and even a bit of how to make a wand! Who knew that the wand actually chose a wizard instead of the other way round?

His writing with a quill also improved a lot over the time, he didn't make so many blotches on his parchment anymore and if he really tried he could write pretty squiggly, something the adults called Calligraphy and seemed to like in formal letters.

Another thing he always looked forward to were his language lessons, after he had grasped the basics of Gobbledegook, meaning he could make simple conversations regarding finances in that language - which had needed a while, who knew money stuff was so complicated - he was allowed to choose another language to learn the basics of. And although languages like French and German sounded interesting too, in the end he chose Mermish. Just like with Gobbledegook, he would only be able to learn a few basics and only a bit at the time as the screeching sounds the language consisted of really made one's throat hurt after a while, but he just imagined how cool it would be to be able to talk normally underwater! After all, the screeching sounds actually formed words when said underwater, however that was possible...

The most interesting things in his studies of course were the few hours every other day where he learned more about his unique abilities. As in, summoning spirits and even turning himself invisible! Especially the latter he practised with great enthusiasm, after all, there wasn't anything better for a seven year old boy than being able to turn himself invisible! Though the former was interesting to practise too, he learnt summoning Lily with greater ease and also managed not summoning her just because he thought of her. Instead, he now really needed to want it before she appeared.

ooo

And so, almost a year after he had arrived at Death's Lair - which made it the start of December on Earth - he had already learned a whole lot, but he still hadn't dared to summon more than one person at once, or anyone else than his mother for that matter. Death had made it clear though that they would attempt just that today, no excuses.

Because of that, Harry had already been slightly anxious the whole day long and he was just leaving the dining room after lunch when he heard weird noises coming from the entrance hall. He stopped walking, listening for a moment as he noticed that these noises were, in fact, voices. But Hugin and Munin probably hadn't left the kitchen yet and if Death was speaking with a Thestral or Grim, he would do that outside.

Harry curiously crept forwards, trying to move as silently as possible to get nearer to the entrance hall to understand the voices.

"...must insist that Harry goes back as soon as possible," a voice Harry didn't know stated, making him frown. Who was that? And where did that person thought Harry would need to go back to?

He stopped in front of the door and waited. Sure, eavesdropping wasn't the most polite thing but if that talk really was about him he deserved to know, didn't he?

"It has been four months already, do you really think the protection is still in place?" Death was just answering. Protection? What were they talking about?

"It had enough time to charge, as long as he returns there soon everything will be fine."

"Maybe he does not want to return? You do realise he has never been kidnapped, do you not?"

"Really now, they are his family, why should he not want to return to them? Children are sometimes exaggerating, I am sure he will see the error of his ways after a small talk."

"If you are so sure about that, ask him yourself," Death was just saying as suddenly, the door in front of Harry swung open, revealing him to the two adults. "While I do not want to discourage eavesdropping you should consider that I am able to feel your presence in my realm."

Harry blushed slightly and mumbled an apology, having forgotten that particular fact. That sometimes happened as he currently was learning so much that some of the smaller details slipped his mind until he was reminded of them again. Like right now.

He slowly stepped into the room as Death waved him nearer, not indicating if he had heard the apology or not. At least Harry was now able to see who the person Death had talked to was, although he didn't recognize them.

It was an old man who was tall - even taller than Death - and had a really, really long beard that reached even past his belt. He currently wore red robes that, in Harry's opinion, made him look like the pictures of Santa Claus they had been colouring in school last Christmas, only a lot thinner. He even wore half-moon spectacles the way some pictures depicted Santa.

The man was currently looking at Death with something like disapproval, but that look vanished as soon a he focused his gaze on Harry. He had really blue eyes that were almost twinkling with some sort of emotion, at least it seemed that way to Harry, who was looking right back after he had stopped walking to stand beside Death.

"My dear boy... I have been told that you have run away from home...? Why would you do something like that?" he asked, in a very grandfatherly voice.

"Um... Who are you, sir?" he asked confusedly instead of answering. Death had told him multiple times to be wary of strangers and he wasn't quite sure what to think of that man as of now even if he and Death seemed acquainted.

The man looked slightly surprised at the question, but answered anyway.

"My name is Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, a school for-"

"Oh, I know about it!" Harry interrupted, earning himself a slightly reproachful look from the man - Mr. Dumbledore.

"I would prefer it if you would let me finish speaking before answering, alright, Harry?" he said and Harry nodded hurriedly, mumbling another apology. Mr. Dumbledore smiled. "Good boy. Now, as you seem to know about Hogwarts I do not need to explain, instead, how about you answer my earlier question? Why would you run away from your family?"

Harry frowned, unsure about how to answer that question without giving too much away. In the end, he decided on an incomplete truth.

"I didn't like it there very much, sir."

Mr. Dumbledore raised his eyebrows. "What was it that you didn't like?"

"Dudley - my cousin - always chased me with some of his friends and Aunt Marge's dogs did too..." he mumbled, not very keen on remembering these things. For him it had almost been a year, after all and he would have preferred not having to remember these shameful events.

Still, Mr. Dumbledore didn't seem convinced. "Did you ever tell them so? I am sure they would have listened if you told them you do not like it."

"Of course I did!" Harry said with slightly more force than necessary, but really, he wasn't stupid! He had told them more than once, they just didn't care.

"Well, if you'd like I can talk to them myself to ensure that this will not happen again, but you will need to go back to them."

"But why? I really like it here."

"When your mother died she put a powerful magical protection around you. But for that to remain active you need to return to your relatives - they have to be your relatives by blood and Petunia is the only remaining one for you. So you see? I just want to know you're safe," Mr. Dumbledore explained.

"But I am safe," Harry insisted. After all, if even the headmaster of Hogwarts had needed four months to find him, how should other people do that? Harry didn't think the knowledge of this realm was well-known, he didn't even know how Mr. Dumbledore had managed to get here. Maybe Death had brought him or something.

"Dear boy, I do not want to claim that you aren't, but I would sleep better if I knew that you would be back with your relatives. And I am sure that they would, too, after all, they must be horribly sad without knowing where you are."

Huh... maybe Mr. Dumbledore was right? Maybe his relatives actually worried about him, even though they had never been really nice? Maybe his loss had changed them...? If he just-

"Stop that right now!" Death's voice suddenly broke Harry's musings. In fact, it halted most of Harry's thoughts as he was sure to hear something like anger in Death's normally emotionless voice. "What do you think you are doing, using Legilimency on the boy?" Confused, he broke eye contact with the headmaster to look at Death. Legilimency? He vaguely remembered hearing that word before... Wasn't that something like mind reading?

"I am terribly sorry, I just wanted to know what he really thinks of his relatives," Mr. Dumbledore offered, sounding surprised but also apologizing.

"You could have asked him. He is not prone to lie, Dumbledore. I have allowed you to come here to see for yourself that he is alright and does not wish to leave. And that does not mean looking for yourself. Especially not since him going back to his relatives fits your idea of your so-called 'Greater Good'. Do not think I have forgotten our conversations from the past. There will be no delving into the boy's mind by you anymore or any other dubious tactics or I will remove you by force."

"Of course, of course," Mr. Dumbledore said hurriedly but before he could say anything else Death turned to Harry.

"You have heard Dumbledore's arguments why you should return to your relatives in his opinion now. The only question that remains is: Do you want to go back?"

And although he had just been slightly insecure about it, Harry shook his head almost instantly. Because even if Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia truly missed him, Dudley wouldn't care about it. And he didn't want to play 'Harry hunting' ever again, especially if he could instead learn even more about... basically everything without having to fear that a question of his would result in him being locked away in a cupboard for the rest of the day.

He didn't even know why he had just felt this insecure anyway... Now that he thought about it, in all these months he had never really thought of returning... Weird...

"Are you absolutely sure?" Mr. Dumbledore asked again as it got obvious that Harry wasn't going to elaborate. "Are you sure you can just turn your back on your relatives after all that they have done for you?"

Harry wasn't sure what to say, especially since he didn't know how much 'all they had done for him' really fit here.

And Dumbledore wasn't even finished yet. "Please, I'm just asking you to reconsider your decision, based on the fact that-" At that, he was suddenly cut off. He had made a step towards Harry when Death obviously had decided that this was enough as just then, shadows had engulfed the man before vanishing.

"Honestly, one would think he had gotten the message by now. It's not even the first time he tries to go against my words," Death said quietly, sounding almost annoyed, which confirmed it.

Albus Dumbledore was gone from Death's Lair.

ooo

Sadly, Death decided right then that they had wasted enough time for this day and would start on their lesson now, which meant any thoughts of maybe telling Lily of this strange meeting had to wait. Both of them went into one of the four guest rooms, that had been changed into Harry's 'class room', before Death turned to look at Harry.

"Now, you know what you have to do: Summon someone who is not your mother. Anyone should be fine but I would recommend someone with whom you have some kind of emotional bond."

Harry nodded, he already knew his task, he also knew that it could not be put off any longer so he steeled himself before focussing. Summoning someone from the dead was surprisingly easy as the stone that gave him it's powers had only required someone to turn it around a few times before working. Something Harry thankfully didn't need to do with himself, he just needed to focus on who he wanted to summon.

Of course, he didn't know if it would be that easy with everyone, Death had told him multiple times already that the stone had always been meant for people close to your heart, so they both didn't know what would happen if Harry attempted to summon someone he didn't know at all.

But today that would not be their main issue, so he tried to empty his mind, only to fill it with everything he knew about his father. Of course he had the advantage of his mother telling him a lot of things, so all too soon, a surprised sounding "Harry?" made him open his eyes that had been closed in concentration.

And really, the spirit of a man - his father, probably - was standing right in front of him, looking surprised. He had black, tousled hair and wore glasses, something that fitted with his mother's description, but Harry wasn't able to observe much more as the spirit actually tried to hug him! Sure, being dead prevented the spirit from truly touching Harry, but it was still a slightly shocking but really nice gesture.

"Um... hi," Harry said awkwardly as his father righted again, a beaming smile on his face.

They stared at each other for a moment, both of them unsure about what to say, before James frowned slightly.

"Huh... I thought Lily had told me you basically looked like a miniature version of me... I mean, I can see the similarities, but it's not as obvious as I had thought," he said.

Happy for the topic Harry smiled a little as he answered. "Well, mum said that once too, but since then I've changed a bit... It has already been eight months after all." Time was a weird thing in the afterlife, so he didn't know if James knew how long it had been since Lily had been first summoned. During the last months he had taken his eye-correcting potion every day and by now he really noticed the difference, only needing his glasses when he wanted to read something far away anymore. And even that would soon get better as long as he continued his once a day ingestion of the potion. Also, he had taken a liking to Death's hairstyle, long and straight, so he had begun to grow his hair. It was now about shoulder-length and these two facts, combined with his build slowly changing into a healthier version of thin than before, made him look quite different. It wasn't very surprising that he didn't quite look the same anymore, but he still liked his new look.

"Well, it's... nice..." James said, slightly hesitant as if something was bothering him but he changed the topic almost immediately as he spotted Death who was tactfully looking out of the window for now. "So, you're really with Death, huh?"

Harry nodded, following his gaze. "Yes. It's really great here, I'm learning so much...!"

James smiled, but he still seemed slightly troubled. "Sounds great, little one. But... you haven't heard from Padfo- I mean, Sirius and Remus, have you?"

Harry shook his head. He knew of his father's friends, but he didn't know what had become of them. They had never visited Privet Drive, that much he knew, but other than that...

James frowned again. "Weird... I've always thought Sirius would be the first one to claim his guardianship over you, as your godfather he would have been able to do so..." Then he paused, as if thinking over something else. "They aren't dead though, are they? I've never seen them around..."

"No, they are not," Death threw in from where he was standing. "I checked. I do not know their current whereabouts, but they have not yet left the land of the living."

James looked relieved at that and even Harry couldn't help but feel a bit similar. He didn't know the men and he didn't even know if he would like them or why they had never looked for him, but he still was glad that at least somewhere in the world were people who knew him from before that fateful night.

"Anyway," Death continued after it became clear that no one else would say something, "Now that the basic introductions are over, how about we continue our lesson?" He turned to James. "I do not know how much your wife has told you, but Harry needs to train his abilities he got from her little ritual. He needs to learn controlling them before he gets even more powerful, otherwise they might start to control him."

James nodded. "Lily told me the basics of it, I guess summoning me was part of that exercise?"

"Exactly. It is all about his willpower and he needs to train summoning different people and more than one at the same time. I do not think he will really need this particular power very often, but sometimes it does become helpful when handling the dying."

And with that, Harry's lesson continued, mostly consisting of him trying to summon Lily or James at will as well as both at the same time. And at the end of these two hours he had at least formed some kind of shaky bond with his father. He wasn't as close to him as he was to Lily, but the man was fun and easy to talk to, so at least there was a possibility of growing to honestly like each other.

I'm currently surprisingly inspired to write, even though my muse for Snake Whisper sadly has not yet returned. But hey, at least you'll be able to read more of Master of Death!

I know that the story moves pretty slow currently and seeing that Harry has still more than 3 Earth-years before he can go to Hogwarts there probably will be many chapters more before that part starts, but there are still so many things he will see and experience, I sure hope it will compensate for the lack of Hogwarts-based chapters. They WILL come in the future, of course. (I know I've said so already, but I just wanted to let you know since I've gotten some reviews that sounded slightly impatient. But don't worry, there will be more canon characters soon too, so it won't be Death-only all these years. ;) )

Other than that, there was the first encounter with Dumbledore and James this chapter, hope it was alright, writing Dumbledore is always difficult and since I want to make Dumbledore very manipulative without writing him too out of character... well, I hope he was convincing.

Thanks to all who have read and reviewed! And the followers/favourites too. :3

Regards, Violet-san