AN: new chapter up, enjoy.

Chapter 50 - Prophecy (II)

Thanks to the information gathered by Big Head, Harry and Fleur knew the rough location of the Bones Mansion's residents. Casting the Human-Presence-Revealing Spell was for the sake of finding out the exact room each one of them was staying in. Once they cast the charm, the silhouettes of four people started to glow through the walls of the house.

Knowing that she had to be very quick - according to Harry's estimations the Aurors might arrive in half a minute after the wards got taken down - Fleur did not waste time. Right after casting the spell, she transformed into her Animagus form and took flight directly to the room where Susan Bones' parents were sleeping.

Landing on the wide window sill, she quickly cancelled her transformation and cast a nonverbal Alohomora. But when she opened the window and slipped into the bedroom, she saw that Adrian and Helen Bones were wide-awake, their wands pointed at her threateningly. The 'earthquakes' caused by the collapse of the wards had been powerful enough to startle them awake from their sleep.

"Who are you? What-" Adrian Bones began to ask but, all of a sudden, the female intruder threw an object on the floor.

Adrian Bones was not a trained fighter like the Aurors, he was just a regular employee of the Department of Magical Transportations at the Ministry of Magic. Nevertheless, he was not completely incompetent either.

"Protego!" he shouted and a bluish shield of light appeared around him and his wife. And it was just in the nick of time because only a moment later, the thing that the intruder had thrown on the floor grew as big as a human and charged at them.

A Reductor Curse shot from Helen's wand and impacted the bronze statue right in the head but the blue beam of light sizzled harmlessly on its surface before disappearing into thin air. The bronze statue punched the shield and its explosive physical strength made Adrian Bones' knees buckle under the pressure.

"Confringo!" "Expulso!" "Bombarda!"

Helen cast several deadly spells in quick succession but the bronze statue was like an immovable juggernaut, her spells not leaving even a scratch on its surface.

"I can't hold it much longer!" she heard her husband say in a strained voice. He was holding his wand with both hands and his forehead was beaded with sweat despite that only a few seconds had passed. Every time the animated statue punched the bluish shield of light, his face twisted in a grimace.

A deafening boom was heard and the Bones couple and Fleur too all winced and instinctively tried to cover themselves with their arms as the windows of the bedroom got shattered and the entire mansion shook as if it was an earthquake.

A feeling of urgency filled the Bones couple. They understood then that the female intruder in their room was not alone and that her accomplice had most likely gone after Amelia - she was the Minister of Magic after all.

"Incarcerous!" Helen cast but the thin cords conjured by her wand snapped like a rotten thread when they coiled around the statue's body in an attempt to immobilize it.

Another explosion rang in the distance and the mansion shook again from its core. Looking through the now shattered window, Helen and Adrian could not hide their shock at seeing the other wing of the mansion blowing up as if a bomb had been detonated from within.

"Ignore the golem, attack her directly!" Adrian shouted and Helen immediately cast a Stunning Charm at Fleur.

But Fleur swiftly deflected the spell to the side, the red beam leaving a small indentation into the wall of the bedroom. Desperation started to grip at Helen's heart as she fired all the offensive spells she could think of from behind the Shielding Charm cast by her husband. But nothing seemed to work! The bronze statue appeared to be immune to everything she was throwing at it and the witch in front of her was deflecting and blocking her spells in a way that she had only seen participants in Duelling Competitions do.

The Bones weren't the only ones feeling the urgency of the situation though. Fleur too was starting to get anxious as time passed because 30 seconds were almost up. Making up her mind, Fleur cast one of the strongest spells in her arsenal.

Under the Bones' couple disbelieving eyes, her spell broke through the Shielding Charm like it was paper. It was the Shielding-Breaking Curse. In the next moment, the bronze statue's hand grabbed Adrian Bones by the neck in a painful chokehold.

"Adrian!" Helen shouted in a panic and pointed her wand at the statue before yelling the incantation of her spell: "Relash-!"

Over the past two years, Harry had hammered into Fleur the concept of striking the iron while it was hot, of capitalizing on the opponent's mistakes and finishing them off. And Helen momentarily shifting her attention away from Fleur had been a big mistake on her part - before she could complete her spell, a Disarming Charm caught her straight in the chest and the wand flew out from her hand. Despite that she had taken control of the situation, Fleur did not relent. A Stunning Charm followed up and Helen Bones slumped on the floor unconscious. A moment later, her husband lost consciousness too as the bronze statue's choke put him to sleep.

A deep rumble was heard and the wind picked up. Fleur turned to look through the window just in time to see an incredible sight: entire chunks of destroyed walls, pieces of furniture, and broken roof tiles were suddenly lifted in the air as a powerful wind roared.

"Protego Aegis!" she shouted and a sphere of blue light took form around her, the bronze statue and the unconscious Bones couple on the floor. It was the strongest Shielding Charm she knew.

And it was not a moment too late. Right after she cast the charm, the window frames were yanked out of their hinges and all furniture in the room was pulled out violently.

"Mon Dieu..." Fleur let out a whisper of incredulity.

It was at that moment, while watching the tornado appearing out of nowhere in the courtyard that Fleur finally understood just how large was the gap between her and Harry. She had caught a glimpse of his power during the Birmingham Hunt when his Firestorm Spell incinerated a portion of the Forest of Dean but now she could see it more clearly. She understood now why Harry was confident to the point of conceit sometimes.

In the end, she was rendered nothing more than a spectator. All she could do was sit under the protection of her strongest shielding charm and keep herself and Susan's parents safe while watching the battle between the two god-like wizards. However, unlike before, she was no longer frustrated. When the difference between themselves and others is too large, people inadvertently lose all thoughts of competing and catching up, their rivalry usually transforming either into awe or envy. In Fleur's case, it was the former. A soft smile appeared on her face. Even when Gaunt summoned the demonic flames and it looked like Harry was at disadvantage due to the Fiendfyre Curse feeding on his Windstorm, Fleur kept her serene expression, not worried in the least. And when Harry's Dao Curse severed the dragon of fire in two and also split the night sky in half, her radiant smile spoke volumes of her excitement.

But when she saw Harry collapsing on the ground and the numerous Aurors slowly closing the distance after dispelling the cursed flames, a bad feeling crept into her heart.

⁂

People dying and their spirit leaving their bodies and getting a bird's view of the scenery below as they started flying towards the sky - Harry could vaguely recall hearing something like that on TV back when he was a child. But even as a child, mostly due to his aunt and uncle's influence, Harry had not put much stock into those stories and he had also forgotten about them until now. But as he was experiencing an out-of-body phenomenon himself, he inadvertently recalled the stuff that he had heard in the past.

His spirit was slowly gaining altitude, flying towards the sky. Momentarily, he closed his eyes.

'How did it come to this?'

He was schooling Gaunt. He got the better of all their exchanges. Having no knowledge in regards to how his totems work or even what they were at all, Gaunt had been on the back foot from the start to finish. Yet there he was, dying.

When he opened his eyes, the Aurors and the Order of the Phoenix members had already finished dispelling the last spark of Gaunt's demonic fire and started to slowly and cautiously close the distance. He could see Dumbledore at their forefront also advancing cautiously, his hand clenched firmly on the handle of his wand.

But then, a metallic glint caught his eyes, the moonlight reflecting from the surface of a bronze statue.

"Fleur! What are you doing?!"

However, she could not hear him. Nobody could see or hear him. He was not a shade, nor a ghost; he was a pure spirit, a soul departing to the after-life.

"Fleur! Fleur!" he shouted. It was all in vain. Moreover, his body continued to fly higher, towards the sky.

It was not only him that noticed her arrival, the other wizards and witches present at the scene also turned their attention to her. It was hard not to when a young woman came out of nowhere with an animated bronze statue that was holding the Minister of Magic's sister and brother-in-law by their throats.

"Freeze!" the Aurors shouted and ran to encircle her.

But Fleur said coldly:

"One more step and they die."

Dumbledore also turned to look at her, a sombre expression in his eyes.

"What is your objective? Why did you attack the Minister? Why are you taking her family hostage?" the old wizard asked, a dangerous edge in his voice.

Chills travelled down Fleur's spine at the tone of Dumbledore's voice. The old wizard that seemed kind and jovial at school looked like a totally different person at that moment. His sheer presence made her involuntarily gulp. Nevertheless, she cleared her mind and quickly regained her clarity.

'I'm the one who holds the advantage,' Fleur reminded herself.

Despite that she was surrounded by dozens of Aurors and members of the Order of the Phoenix, and despite that she had no chance at winning against someone like Dumbledore, she said fearlessly:

"I'm warning you. One more step and I'll kill them."

Everyone around her stilled. Amelia Bones had already lost most of her family in the war from a decade ago - they had been murdered by Voldemort himself. Nobody wanted to be responsible for causing the deaths of her only remaining sibling.

Still surrounded by her Aegis Shielding Charm and with the bronze statue holding the unconscious Adrian and Helen by their necks, Fleur started walking towards the spot where Harry's prone form laid. She licked her lips nervously.

"You're either insane or you've got some serious balls if you think that we'll let you just get away with it," Mad-Eye snarled and brandished his wand.

"ALASTOR!" Dumbledore thundered and the grizzled Auror froze in his tracks like a frightened deer. He put his wand down, not daring to move an inch from his spot.

Turning his attention back to Fleur, Dumbledore spoke:

"You and your partner have run amok for years, killing many people in the process, some of them innocent."

Fleur stilled and clenched her fingers around the handle of her wand. Unexpectedly, she cancelled the Shielding Charm around them, leaving herself unprotected. With a mental Enervate, she made Helen regain her consciousness. The woman started hyperventilating from panic - her last memory before falling unconscious was seeing her husband get captured by the bronze statue and when she woke up she found herself in a chokehold too, the statue's hold barely allowing her to breathe. She was kicking the air, grunting, crying and shaking desperately to escape.

The visual impact of Amelia Bones' sister desperately fighting for her life made the Aurors and the members of the Phoenix gain a deeper understanding of Fleur's nature. Even Dumbledore stopped speaking and watched her with barely controlled fury.

"I know the Aurros are carrying anti-Portkey devices," Fleur said, doing her hardest to sound confident and composed while continuing to walk towards Harry's prone form. "Throw them on the ground. Don't test me. One wrong move and I'll twist their necks like chicken."

"Do as she says!" Dumbledore said, his eyes never leaving her. Then, he spoke to her: "I don't know who you are but mark my words, young woman: I will find you. Be it in one year, be it in five or in ten. Eventually, you will slip and make a mistake. I will find you and I will stop you."

"If only you and the Ministry of Magic were as determined to stop Voldemort and the Death Eaters as you are to catch me, I wouldn't need to clean up the trash in your stead," Fleur spat back at him.

The Ministry of Magic had spent thousands of galleons and even went as far as to throw away their dignity by 'admitting' that Fenrir Greyback had escaped from their prison solely for the purpose of catching her during the Birmingham Hunt. If that kind of cunning and resourcefulness had been directed at Voldemort and his Death Eaters, Fleur's terrible past future would have never happened.

⁂

Watching Fleur being surrounded by Aurors and members of the Order of the Phoenix from all sides and with Dumbledore facing off against her, Harry was going crazy with anxiety.

It was at that moment that Death's Prophecy came to the front of his mind.

"We won't be seeing each other for some time. But you will be presented with a choice in the future. A matter of life and death. You will be at a crossroads, Harry Potter. Should you choose to call my name at that time, I will answer you, and you will become my Champion, my Emissary. But if you do not, I will no longer try to tempt you. You will be set free. Free to pass on to the afterlife when your time comes."

'I never thought that I would die like this.'

Back when he had heard Death's Prophecy, he had thought that either Fleur or Bellatrix would somehow end up dying which in turn would force him to ask for Death's help. That's because he was aware of it himself that he would trade his life for theirs in a heartbeat should the situation ask for it. Furthermore, he had been so confident in his power that he could not even imagine losing his fight against Voldemort. But the present was different from the future that he had envisioned. It was not Fleur, nor Bella who died. It was him. Even as he replayed the final moments of his life, he could still not understand what happened, how in the world had Gaunt managed to kill him. Nonetheless, he did not have time to ponder on it right now. Letting out a resigned sigh, he called out:

"Death."

⁂

His sight darkened as he found himself in a place that he was starting to become familiar with. An expanse of pitch-black darkness. There was no light, no smell, no sound, no wind, not a living thing around. There was only darkness, emptiness.

"You called my name. I told you that you would," A rather chilly but amused voice rang in his ear and Harry felt his back break into a cold sweat.

"I never had a choice in the first place, did I? Why play these games with me? Why give me the illusion of free will? Why not just make me do your bidding from the start?" Harry said bitterly.

"But you do have free will. It's your choice whether you accept my offer or not," Death said, amusement disappearing from its voice.

"Is this free will? It's like being threatened with a knife and the thief telling you - 'you have a choice. Give me your wallet and you get to keep your life'. This isn't free will. I'm forced by the situation, I am coerced."

Despite that he knew that the entity in front of him could end his existence with but a thought, Harry could not help letting out the resentment filling his heart at that moment, his emotions getting the better of him.

In response to his accusations, Death made a screen of light appear in the expanse of darkness. In it, Harry watched how despite the dozens of witches and wizards surrounding her Fleur grabbed a hold of his body and his wand before Disapparating away together with her bronze statue.

"Your lover escaped just fine. I am not forcing you to do anything, Harry Potter. Remember, you are the one who called me, not the other way around."

Inwardly, Harry was thinking whether Death simply showed him a made-up image or if it really was true but he did not dare voice out his doubts. He had a strong feeling that Death would not take it lightly to be called a liar.

Eventually, he asked:

"You said I will become your Emissary. What is that about?"

"You will become mine. For eternity. As long as life exists in the Universe, so does Death. As long as I exist, so will you. Unable to pass on, forever bound to live as my avatar, forever bound to complete my mission."

"Your slave," Harry summarized.

"It's far from being as terrible as you make it out to be," Death replied and Harry got the impression that it was feeling amused at him again. "You won't be mindless. You won't be my puppet. As long as you complete my mission, I won't involve myself in your other matters."

"Mission? What is your mission?"

"To preserve balance. To preserve life. To eliminate all that goes against the natural order of things," Death answered and Harry was stumped for words. "You may think it's Paradoxical for Death to preserve life but take a moment to imagine what would happen if Death didn't exist, if every living being never died. Pests, animals, humans - all living beings would multiply endlessly in the billions of years that passed since the birth of this world."

"Was this your goal from the beginning when you gave me a second chance at life?" Harry asked. "Did you know that this is how it was going to end, regardless of what I wanted?"

"Yes," Death said. "When you held all three Hallows in your hand, you became mine."

As Harry was silent, Death continued:

"Past, present, future - humans cannot help but think within these limitations. That is your nature. But I hold the past, the present, and the future in my hand. I am simultaneously watching the day of your birth, the current moment, and the day of your funeral. Time is but a concept that humans created. I am outside of time. I am eternal. Eternity cannot be measured."

"But to answer your first question: after giving you and the little Veela a new chance at life, I didn't have to do anything else to steer you into becoming my Emissary. From the beginning, I knew that you would find people to call family. I knew that you would fall in love with the girl that I have brought into your life. I knew that you would grow to love your second life and that you would not be able to bear parting with the ones you love. I knew that you would trade an eternity just to spend the rest of your lifespan as a human with them. You are that kind of person. You've never wished for power, riches, fame, authority, or immortality. All you've ever wanted was a family and companionship."

A few moments of silence passed before Harry asked, this time a completely different question:

"How did I die? I defeated Voldemort. I even tortured him into unconsciousness and captured his soul. How did he break out of my spell? How did he kill me?"

"It was the Curse of the Damned." Death said. "Necromantic, sacrificial magic that had originated in Ancient Egypt, around 4000 years ago. By sacrificing his life, he took you with him to the grave."

Harry became speechless.

"This Curse of the Damned was, in fact, the main cause that led to the creation of Horcruxes. The man known in history as Herpo the Foul had been the first human to ever split his soul. He had created the first Horcrux and he had done it for the sole purpose of becoming able to cast the Curse of the Damned more than once, to kill an enemy that was more powerful than himself."

It was a bit of history that Harry had never heard of until then. In the first place, information about Horcruxes alone was almost inexistent, incredibly difficult to acquire. But then again, Voldemort had always been fascinated by Necromancy - he had created his first Horcrux when he was only 16 years old. The rest of the Horcruxes, the Inferi in the cave, the ritual of resurrection...just thinking about it was enough to make his skin crawl.

"How am I supposed to deal with him then?" Harry said helplessly. "If he's anything like in my past life, it means he still has like 6 more chances to cast the Curse of the Damned."

Even if he came back and managed to corner Voldemort again, no matter how much stronger he was, Voldemort would once again take Harry with him to the grave. It was hopeless no matter how he thought about it.

"The Voldemort of this world had only made one Horcrux - the Diary that's still in your possession," Death said, casually revealing the secret that Harry, Bellatrix, and Fleur had been trying to uncover for several years with no success. "Besides, once you become my Emissary, magic related to the soul will no longer affect you."

Silence was instilled for a moment as Harry fell into deep thought. After a while, he opened his mouth intent on asking several questions such as "where was Voldemort now?" or "how did he find that ancient curse?" - but Death did not give him the chance to do so. Instead, Death suddenly said:

"I have answered your questions. It is time you gave me an answer too, Harry Potter: what is it going to be? Will you pass on to the afterlife or will you live on as my avatar, as the Emissary of Death in the mortal world? Choose your destiny."