Disclaimer: Don't own.

Chapter Nine

Harry sat up, and looked around in confusion and apprehension. The last thing he remembered was trying to get Thor, himself, and his ever growing entourage down to Earth. Because of course he wasn't leaving Fenrir and Sleipnir behind to fend for themselves against Asgardians that were not as understanding as Odin and Thor (for some reason the dark haired woman, Sif popped into his head, but he had not dealt with her since his arrival). And unless he somehow managed to land, alone, in a deep cave, this was not Earth.

"Er... Hello?" He called. Not a cave, then. No echo.

But there was an answer. "Hello." A woman's voice replied calmly. She sounded like she was a few feet away, but of course Harry couldn't see in this damned darkness.

"Where am I? And where are you?" He grumbled, pulling himself to his feet. The dark area he was in was suddenly flooded with light. It was a plain white room, sort of like a waiting room, with furniture the same snow white color as the walls and floor.

And he was faced with the cliche anthropomorphic Death, cloak and all.

Really, most people would be more surprised with this turn of events, but Harry had been thrown for so many loops over his long life to find this all that surprising.

"Hello." He said again, his tone bland with acceptance.

"Finally, my Master, you have chosen to fully accept all the gifts she- er- I have given you." Death spoke in the woman's voice from before. Huh, Death was female. Who knew?

His mind registering that last sentence, he lifted one eyebrow and crossed his arms. "And here I thought that Master of Death was just a fancy title that wizards came up with." He said dryly. "So I'm here because I channeled my magic into all of the Hollows?"

The cloaked head nodded. "Oh, yes. You usually don't even touch the Stone, and rarely utilize the Wand and Cloak."

Leaning back against a white wall, Harry tried to get a good look at it-HER face. But it was obscured in darkness cast by the hood she wore. "You know, you sound kind of young to be as old as Death supposedly is." He pointed out.

"And you look quite a bit younger than you are." She shot back, a note of irritation in her voice.

Grinning, Harry replied, "Touche. So, Madame Death, can you tell me why I'm here, or did I finally kick the bucket and stay dead this time?"

She leaned against her scythe, "Oh no, Master, you are quite alive. But utilizing the Hollows initiated... initiated... Crap." She muttered, and shuffled around in the pocket of her volumous dark cloak until with a small cry of triumph, she found what she was looking for. A small stack of note cards.

The wizard watched in slightly bemused amusement as she took a minute to shuffle through them before reading one and putting them back.

"I take it you have had time to plan out this whole scenario?" He teased.

"You have no idea." He could almost see the eye roll that accompanied the sentence, and that sealed it. Death was a teenager.

Before she could stop him, he darted forward and tugged at the back of the hood, allowing it to fall to her shoulders while her face was revealed, annoyed look and all.

She had blond hair, and her eyes looked a bit like Heimdall's. And she was obviously very young.

"You just couldn't leave it alone, could you?" She grumbled, crossing her arms with a huff while the scythe stayed standing where it was, held up by some unseen force.

He shrugged unrepentantly. Then grinned. "You know, I started suspecting once you messed up and almost said 'she', but then caught yourself and inserted 'I', and the whole note card thing sealed it. You're fairly new to this, aren't you? You're either one of many 'Death's out there, or you just took up after the last one. So which is it?"

With an irritated 'harrumph' she answered. "I am fairly new at this. I've only been doing it for a little over a century. But even before I took up the mantle of Death I've been hearing stories of you, Harry Potter. You have no idea how annoyed the last Death was when she retired. Seven hundred years, and yet you never used all three Hollows at once."

He shrugged again. "And how was I to know I was supposed to do that? Anyway, now that my curiosity satiated, what as it you were saying?" He prompted. "And really, you should know not to have attempted to keep secrets around me. The saying 'Curiosity killed the cat' was based off of me, I think. After all, how many of these damned jumps have I ended just because I got a little too curious about something and it killed me?"

"Well, there was that time with the Grunganian Ambassador you followed-"

"Corrupted, just like I knew he was."

"The mating habits of the Hythers-"

"Come on, they had nothing that could be consider genitals. I just wanted to know how the Hell they reproduced. It's not my fault they get violent when they're erm... frisky."

"The time you tried to Apparate into space-"

"That one was on purpose. That planet was entirely empty and uninteresting, no life on it whatsoever, so I wanted to at least jump to somewhere where there was something to keep me occupied."

"The time you followed that man for a week, and he killed you-"

"He was suspicious! And raping children! He wouldn't have been able to kill me if the dratted castration hex wasn't so complex! But at least he can't touch anymore children..."

"You ended up on the planet with the Fryte!"

"Is that what that giant tusked horse was called? Nasty thing, but at least they were more interesting than the empty planet. And I got an awesome potion out of it!"

"Only you could get a 'plus' out of being eaten." Death muttered, then stomped her foot in a distinctly petulant manner. "Can we please get back on topic here?" She demanded.

Harry held up his hands in 'peace' gesture. "Hey. You started it."

Death seemed to be counting back from ten or some other calming method, because after a short time in which she did not reply, she finally spoke. "You're very adept at irritating people, Master."

He grinned. "Yeah, it's a talent. Anyway, where were we before? Oh yeah! I initiated something, but after that you forgot your line."

Regaining hold of her scythe, Death nodded, probably ignoring that last bit. "Right. Well, you initiated something alright. You are now officially Master of Death. Which, among other things, means you can now control your jumps."

"Officially Master of Death? I wasn't before?" Then the rest of her sentence struck him. Harry blinked, and pointed an accusing finger at her. "You mean to tell me that I could have done this eight hundred years ago? Why am I just hearing this now? Do you know how much trouble jumping like that, unwillingly, has caused me?"

It was her turn to shrug. "Neither I nor my predecessor were able to talk to you until you activated all three Hollows at the same time. Why is it that you never activated the Stone with the others, anyway?"

Sagging back against the wall, he muttered, "Because who would I summon from 'beyond' at this point? I didn't want to disturb anyone." He perked up. "Wait, does this mean that when you let me back to Asgard, I'll be able to jump to Midgard with no problem? Taking Thor, Fenrir, and Sleipnir with me? How would I do that?" He asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, shouldn't prove to be a problem for you. It's pretty much the same as the phenomenon you call Apparating. Just think about details of your destination, and you're there. Ask the god Heimdall to show you a bit of the Earth you're traveling to." She was not expecting his next outburst.

"That bastard Heimdall! He knew this would happen!"

With a snicker, Death waved her hand and he faded from the overly white room. She would be seeing him soon anyway.

I'm baaaaaaack! Apparently, in the part of the world I live in, it's hot this time of year. Who knew. Well, back to the regularly scheduled chapters!

Lionna