Disclaimer: I don't own Darker than Black or Harry Potter. There, I said it.

"Talking"

'Thinking'

Flashbacks

Parseltongue

Death

Warnings: Mild, miiild language.

A/N: Wow. I'm really sorry guys, I totally didn't realize how long it had been since I posted a chapter for…anything really. Luckily, I've recently been taking a driving class. It's so boring that my muse goes completely wild trying to entertain itself, and creates ideas! Yay!…don't kill me? I had a minor case of writer's block. Well, it wasn't so much writer's block as it was that I just couldn't get the scene to come out the way I'd pictured it in my head. I'm still not certain that I'm completely satisfied with this, but…eh. If it sucks, tell me. Constructively. And I don't have a beta, so a) please forgive any grammatical or spelling mistakes, and b) if anyone would like to volunteer, I'd be very grateful. Sorry for anyone who hoped for an update on my other fic (shameless self-advertisement XDXD); I'm working on it, but I'm stuuuck…On a completely different note, EEEEWWWWW, IT'S ALMOST SCHOOL AGAIN!

A/N 2 (12/25/2013): Long story short, I totally reformed my fic, and it just so happened that I found a different stopping point so that the chapter could be a bit longer. Yay. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and all that jazz.

Last Chapter

Death stared at him for a moment, during which Harry could almost feel him searching his soul, before he stated, "Very well. An alternate universe it is." Harry could practically feel the grin in his voice. Harry saw motion out of the corner of his eye, and turned to it. Where there had previously been only white, there was now a green door. Harry walked to the side of it, and noted that there was nothing behind it. "Walk through this door, and you will find yourself in another world. I believe that this one will be perfect for you." Death tilted its head, looking at him curiously, "It seems you've already started on its path. In any case, know that after this, there is no going back." Death stated, gesturing lazily at the door. Harry looked at him blankly before saying, "Thank you," and walking towards the door. He grabbed the knob, turning it, and opened the door to see only black, a major contrast to the white world he had found himself in up till now. He stepped through without a moment's hesitation, the door behind him somehow shedding no light in in the darkness, sending himself into the unknown.

Harry kept his eyes open, and his ears peeled, as he observed the darkness he found himself surrounded by. Though, it really made no difference, as there didn't seem to be anything to see or hear. It was like walking through a wall of black. He might have wondered if he'd gone deaf and blind, had he not been able to hear the sound of his own breathing and the quiet shuffle of his footsteps, and see the green of the door, which had closed as soon as he walked through the doorway. He absently hoped that he wouldn't trip over anything, and set a steady pace in what he assumed was the right direction, his back to the doorway he'd just walked through, and his steps light and careful. The ground beneath his bare feet felt smooth and slightly brittle, like thin ice, and was slightly cool to the touch, while the air was muggy and warm. He walked along, not thinking of anything in particular.

Just when he was beginning to wonder if he would be stuck in this limbo of sorts forever, or if he was somehow going in circles, he noticed that, when he paused to take a quick rest and brush the hair back from his eyes, he could just barely see the outline of his hand. As he lowered his hand and continued walking, his surroundings slowly got brighter, lit with a strange greenish glow. He cast his gaze downward, and felt a brief flicker of surprise when he saw something staring back at him. He paused in his walking, bending down into a crouch. Corpse-like eyes stared back at him blankly, and a sickly, pale hand pressed against the surface on which he was standing, causing it to bend slightly, but not break. Long hair floated in a translucent, pale-green substance, its glow casting shadows across a feminine face. Harry looked around him, noting that there were more of these figures floating below him, seemingly separated only by the transparent floor, all of them lit up by the ghostly glow. As he watched, the substance rippled and thickened before one of the figures was suddenly dragged beyond his view. He stood up, giving his surroundings another passing glance, before he continued on his way.

It was a bit of a relief to be able to see again, though he would admit that the scenery could have been more welcoming. So long as whatever lay beneath the surface he walked upon stayed there, Harry was sure that he'd be fine. His relief was short lived the ground was becoming even more brittle than before. The pale green substance was slowly fading to white as he continued. The ground began crackling quietly with his every step, and his muscles were tensed, ready to leap backwards at any moment. His steps slowed, and were taken even more carefully than before. A few steps more, and there was a loud cracking sound. He froze, adrenaline racing, ready to leap away. Nothing came of it, and he relaxed minutely. However, this was a major error, for as soon as he lowered his guard, the ground cracked underneath him, sending him into the liquid abyss. He kicked, trying to make for the surface, but it didn't have any effect. His movements didn't even cause a ripple, and the substance was about the consistency of thick mucus. Similar to quicksand, the more he moved, the faster he sank. He held his breath for as long as he could, but soon ran out. Then, there was no choice left but to breathe. He breathed in, hacked out, tried to catch his breath but lacked air. Right before he passed out, his last thought was that death was a complete and utter bastard.

Change POV

Just as Harry passed out, It awoke. It had no true name, no species, and no gender. All It had was a single purpose to fulfill. A purpose which had never been able to be fulfilled before, so if It were to be able to speak, it would say that it was quite excited, while jumping up and down, grinning, clapping its hands, and squealing like a rabid fan girl. However, since It was just a gelatinous mass without a body or facial features, It sadly had to refrain. Its purpose was to change a being so that it would be able to live on in its new world. As a general rule, since there had never been any other masters of death who decided upon a new world, It wasn't able to serve its purpose. It usually spent its days watching other universes, and gaining information on them so that it could better change a Master if one finally decided to show up. Quite a boring existence if you asked It, but no one had. In fact, it was quite an annoyance to It that there was never anything for It to do…It guessed that was its punishment for pissing death off all those years ago…but let's get back on track, shall we?

As It awoke to the presence of a Master, It began to panic. Why, you might wonder? Because this Master was close to death, and It didn't know why, or what it was supposed to do to fix the problem…aha! Because this Master seems to need oxygen to keep going, and he wasn't getting any! Once It understood the problem, it was able to fix it by filling its gelatinous substance with oxygen, allowing the Master to breathe again. Mission accomplished. Next step, according to Its instinctual directions, was to fix the Master's energy to be one with that of their next world. 'Well.' It thought in its inanimate-object-given-sentience way, 'this shouldn't be too hard.' However, It thought too soon, because the Master's energy was somehow…blocked off? 'Well, this isn't right. This isn't right at all!' It thought, slightly befuddled. 'I'll just have to break through this barrier!' It gathered all of Its considerable power, and rammed it into the barriers blocking It from the Master's energy. To its confusion and distress, the barriers didn't shatter under the pressure of its awe-inspiring power. The barriers only had a small crack in them, just barely enough for it to reach in Its own energy to change the Master's, but not enough to access all of it. It was quite obviously troubled, shown by the vibrations thrumming through its substance. How was It to change the Master's energy now? Suddenly, It was struck by an idea. 'If I cannot change the Master's energy, then I'll just add to it!' It reached into the Master's body, putting its own energy in place as substitution for the remainder of the Master's energy, and tweaking it slightly so it would fit the energy of the world the Master was headed for. Once It was done, It formed a doorway to the Master's new universe, and pushed him through it, before closing the doorway and going back to sleep, in order to await the next Master.

Harry suddenly awoke, and his body immediately alerted him to the all-encompassing ache he was feeling by pulsing with pain in time with his heartbeat. He groaned, opening his eyes and wondering what the hell had happened to him, and where the hell he was now. According to the position of the sun, at least if this world was similar to his in that manner, it was sometime in the late afternoon or early evening. He was lying on cool ground that felt similar to concrete, in a place that smelled distinctly of cat piss and garbage. 'I believe Death has a sense of humor.' he thought to himself as he blinked the spots out of his eyes. He sat up, scooting himself back to lean against the wall behind him with a hiss of pain, and looking around to take in what he could of where he had landed himself. His first impression of his new world was not impressive. Who would be impressed with an alley? Especially one as smelly and trash filled as the one he'd landed himself in.

He sighed yet again, shooing away a cat that'd seemed to decide his leg was a good scratching post before freezing, an air of faint shock about his countenance. He sensed a faint energy within him. An energy he hadn't sensed since the wizarding world had seen fit to lock it away. He could feel it, weakly welling up within him, just dying to be noticed. 'My…magic?' But it felt…changed somehow. While he could still recognize it as his magic, it felt different than it ordinarily did. He sat up slightly and held himself stiffly in a meditative position before closing his eyes and slipping into his core.

His mental-self appeared to be floating freely in a dark, gravity-free space, inside of which was his magical core. Before being locked away, his core was a dark shade of gray, freely floating gas that circled around itself as though caught in an air current, though there was none. Whenever he visited his core while in Azkaban, attempting to free his magic from its bindings, his magic appeared to be trapped within an unbreakable barrier of interweaving golden runes. Now, the scene had changed. His magic was still partially locked away, but a large crack ran through one side of the rune barrier, allowing his magic to slowly seep through. Some of it continued to float freely, while another part of it disappeared, having been taken by his body to speed up his healing. However, what was most surprising was the new energy, which was attacking the rune barrier, and slowly wearing it down. This energy was an electric blue, and where his magic was a gas, it was mostly a solid. A thick ring of solid energy surrounded his core, but there were tendrils of a more gas-like version twisting away and mixing with his magic.

He jerked with surprise, pulling himself from his meditative state, and slumping out of his meditative position. He glanced to his wrist, noting that the runic, metal wristband blocking his magic was cracked. A small smile flitted across his face with the realization that, slowly but surely, his magic was returning to him. The brief smile was banished quickly as his visage quickly settled back into its usual blankness, his thoughts re-settling into their normal guarded path. He glanced around the alleyway while taking stock of his body's injuries. 'I seem to have 3…4 broken ribs,' he thought, scowling as he prodded delicately around his chest. 'My right femur has a…hairline fracture it seems,' lifted his leg up with his arms. 'And, well…that's obviously broken…' he thought with a pained grimace as he probed the area around his ankle, which was facing in the direction opposite of where it should've been.

He sighed as he carefully put his leg down, and reached around the garbage cans he was situated behind, grabbing a plastic bag and some sticks to use as a splint. 'Not the best materials I've ever had to use for a splint. Not the worst though.' He thought absently before he braced himself, and yanked his ankle back around. He bit clean through his lip as he suppressed a shout of pain. He tightly and carefully created a makeshift splint around his ankle, before attempting to get up and leave. He stood up, painfully and slowly, wincing all the way, and using the wall as a lever. He eventually got himself into a standing position, but as he tried to take a step forward, his leg collapsed under his weight, sending him careening into a trashcan. He stared blankly toward the opening of the alleyway as black spots popped up in his vision, while attempting to lift himself up on his elbows.

He must've passed out for a moment, for when his attention refocused, a person had appeared. As he watched, they hesitantly stepped toward him. "Konichiwa?" 'Oh. Japanese. Or is it Japan in this world? Is it even the same language?' he thought absently, the growing pain doing odd things to his thought processes. 'Perhaps some phrases are the same, but the language is different?' his mental tangent continued as his body attempted to right itself. It eventually gave up in its attempts; he felt his arms give out beneath him, and he slumped on the ground. "Ano, daijoubu desuka?" The person ran over. "Oi!" His hearing must have faded; he could see the person talking, but he couldn't hear them. 'I certainly hope I don't look as shitty as I feel…' he paused. 'Oh. Azkaban. Right. I probably look like shit then.' He mentally berated himself for his inattention as, suddenly, the person's hand was on his shoulder, and they were lifting him up; he should've been more observant. His vision began to fade as well, the darkness that had been hovering by the edges closing in. The last thing he saw was his reflection in the oddly dead blue eyes of his rescuer.

A/N (12/25/2013): Yay for better chapter ends, and gueeeesss whooooooo! The next chapter will be out by/before New Year's; it's already mostly done, just gotta flesh it out a bit. The Japanese this chapter is probably about all you'll see, other than the usual weeaboo stuff like the various family members, suffixes, and random words here and there like 'Hai' or 'nani?' or 'neko'. Nitpicking with regard to Japanese stuff is fine too, I think it's kinda cool to learn about the language XD. Also…

Important!: I'd like to know how you guys feel about slash pairings, or pairings in general. At this point, I'm not really planning for any romance in this fic, but I'd like to know how you guys'd feel about it all the same, just in case. So, thoughts please?