Concurrent Existences

Chapter 37: Concurrent Existences

Death is Patient.

"Ready for round two?"

Death truly was impressed. The connection Death had on Harry Potter's body was near its limit even if it seemed as he just continued to gain more power.

Power wasn't the point. Death was all-powerful the very first time all his Dementors reformed and allowed him into this world, but losing the host body and the possibility of possessing anyone else would mean that he would have truly lost.

Without an anchor to the world, Death would be reformed into his original form and could wipe out existence on this world, but what would be the point in that?

Another decayed world amongst thousands wasn't what Death wanted nor did he want to restart everything he had done. It was fun, but Death wanted more.

Death wanted to live.

Death would not lose.

Death is Patient.

Death is Eternal...

... and knew exactly what to do.

It would be a high gamble, a great risk.

But, a wager I will take if it allows me life.

Death wanted them to be afraid. Death wanted them to falter and doubt themselves as he wielded what looked to be a darker version of Excalibur, but Bellatrix knew better. The Time-Reversal she had used was effective in almost detaching Death from his host body. No matter how powerful Death was, losing his host body as well as destroying the leftover Deathly Hallows would make all his plans throughout the few millennia be nothing.

What Bellatrix was afraid of was the aftermath. Even though they destroy or detach Death from his host body and destroy all the Hallows, Death would reform into his Deity form, there was no other explanation. A being like Death was a two-dimensional enemy that could be easily dealt with.

Hermione was thinking the exact same thing as she watched Death recreate the Excalibur. When Bella had implanted thoughts in her mind, a mind link was established allowing them to share thoughts and not scream out loud at each other during the battle.

If Death did reform into his original Deity form, well, he would be detached from their reality, but he could still kill people from his presence alone if he decided to

"Excalibur and many of the Deathly Hallows were never used correctly." Death waved the sword that seemed to be littered with shadows. It was still beautiful blade with a black stone embedded within its hilt and the sublime edge glittering with darkness, it was the exact opposite of what Excalibur was supposed to be.

Hermione tried another round of spells, but all the spells dissipated as Death slammed the darkened blade into the ground in front of him. The gem on the hilt which was formerly the Resurrection Stone glowed an eerie black light.

Tendrils of darkness spewed from where the sword hit all attaching themselves to the ten dead forms of the Unspeakables that had tried to stall Death to no avail.

Hermione and Bellatrix watched in horror as they saw the spirits or souls of the Unspeakables slowly pulled from their body and become entangled by the tendrils.

"The Resurrection Stone, always misused. I believe Harry was barely able to use it by summoning shades of his loved ones, but I never did let my Hallows come with a manual, now did I?"

The tendrils continuously squeezed and invaded the Unspeakables bodies and spirits. The agony and silent screams were petrifying, even Bellatrix would admit that this was a bit over the top.

"The stone does resurrect, not the way humans want it to though."

The Unspeakable bodies quickly withered and decayed as the tendrils sucked the life from them. Their spirits were infused with the dark tendrils that made them lose their shape.

Death laughed as he removed the sword from the ground, the tendrils that came out of it zipped back straight into the blade and the glowing gem dulled once more.

Standing before the two witches were now ten Inferi spawned from the broken, defiled bodies of the Unspeakables and ten Dementors using their souls as fuel to respawn at the existence of the Deathly Hallows.

The battle raged on.

The Inferi and Dementors all began to swarm Hermione while Death wielding Excalibur began to duel it out with Bellatrix.

Hermione cast her Patronus to begin emitting the light waves to keep the Dementors at bay, but the quick broken movements of the Inferi were what Hermione was watching out for as they stumbled like the zombies they were towards her.

The main weakness of the Inferi were fire, it was a no-brainer that Hermione sent a wave of fire towards them, however, a shadow-like shield was keeping them from fully burning.

Hermione kept having to maneuver herself not to be caught by the Inferi that kept rushing along with the stray Dementor that her Patronus couldn't contain. She would have summoned a larger Patronus, but magic was now scarce. There was only so much magic that Hermione could recycle and siphoning off magic from Bellatrix might be counterproductive as she could see her lover's battle from the side of her peripherals.

Hermione had no plan. All she had was to defend herself until an opportunity presented itself.

This is bad.

Bellatrix parried another sword blow with her arm encased in dark magics. A good effect the Time-Reversal dealt was that Death was unable to absorb her magic like he did during their first encounter. One of her arms was fully encased with the Tenebrae Machaera, the Dark Blade, just to fend off all the high speed close range attacks that Death was throwing out. Her other hand was firing off spells to try and get a good distance away from Death. She needed distance to cast any significant spell that could possibly turn the tides.

The dark witch glanced over to Hermione, she quickly launched a fireball that destroyed two of the remaining Inferi that were hobbling towards Hermione. At the same time, a crescent wave of dark energy slammed and pierced into the Patronus Hermione had created as well as hitting Hermione with dark magic from the explosion.

"Best pay attention, Miss Black." Death had launched the devastating blow towards the Patronus while she had destroyed a couple of Inferi.

Bloody fuck! The bloody idiot was unrelenting!

"Can you just wither and die?" Bellatrix hissed, getting tired of all the shite that was happening.

"Then join me?" Death grinned again. Bellatrix was really tired of seeing Potter's face dominating the battle though. It was just irritating.

Seriously. This fight was stupid.

"Hermione! Can we not just join him?!" Bellatrix shouted towards Hermione.

Hermione was forced to look at her girlfriend while recasting her Patronus and at the same time maintaining a fire wall to hold the remaining Inferi at bay.

"NO!" Was the quick reply before Hermione concentrated on her spells again.

"Fuck shite! This is all your fault. She probably would have joined if you didn't kill her parents!" There was a fuck ton of other things Death did to make Hermione not want to join, but her parents death was probably the main reason.

Bellatrix knew that Death had technically been the reason why her life was fucked with, but fuck! The battle was going nowhere! Battles were fun, but not fighting near-omnipotent Deity-like enemies!

"My apologies. I'll keep that in mind for future anomalies." Smug bastard.

There were absolutely no openings at all. Death has millennia of skills and sword mastery was probably one of them. A Time-Burst spell was ready to instantly propel her body forward, but with Death's eyes constantly glued to her, she could not risk impulsively using it. Getting impaled on the legendary blade wasn't on her checklist.

Death and Bellatrix were about to reengage when a voice shouted out.

"Hermione! Bellatrix!" The dark witch momentarily looked to the side.

About time! Bellatrix saw Luna and Helena both phasing in the room. How Looney was able to do that, Bella would ask later. She was about to engage Death again when Death suddenly lunged for Hermione.

FUCK!

Bellatrix used the Time-Burst she was holding to immediately appear in the way of Death that was going towards Hermione. The dark witch was able to parry Excalibur with her own Dark Blade. Her other hand was inches away from Death's face, ready to blast him back into oblivion.

Blood began to dribble down Bellatrix's lip.

"I'd like to return your dagger to you, the craftsmanship is very elegant." Death twisted the dagger that had just been impaled into Bellatrix's stomach using his free hand.

Bellatrix fired off a concentrated beam of dark energy that blew Death away and promptly fell to the ground on one knee clutching the dagger stuck in her stomach that was shrouded in dark energy.

Thank fucking Morgana I reverted into my past form. It still hurt like hell though.

"Bella!" Hermione rushed to Bellatrix's side as Helena began to combat and distract the Inferi. Helena must have known more about the Inferi because whatever she was doing was leading the all the leftovers away. The brunette could also see Luna pacifying all the Dementors within the area, Hermione assumed Volana was responsible.

Our baby! Hermione's eyes widened when she was the amount of blood that was spilling from Bellatrix's stomach. Before Hermione could react in anger or any other emotion, Bellatrix huffed and pulled out the dagger glowing with dark magics.

"She's fine. I'm in my past form, remember? Our baby can't be harmed as long as I'm in this form." Bellatrix reassured. Hermione watched as Bellatrix reversed time locally to stitch her wound back together leaving no mark at all, not even a tear in her robes.

Both witches stood, ready to fight again, a bit surprised Death had not capitalized on Bellatrix's injury to press the attack. The blast to the head was powerful, but Hermione knew that Death could shrug off magic like sprays of water.

And just like they predicted, Death stood back up, not an injury.

"Are you sure there isn't anything else in your possession that can help you win? This is getting quite repetitive again." Death taunted, but at the same time Hermione's mind began to race.

Possession.

There was one thing left. It was a long shot.

Hermione brought out the Cloak of Invisibility that she had taken from Ron.

"You are fucking crazy." Bellatrix said while glancing over to Hermione. The brunette's thoughts were clear in the dark witch's mind. Her thoughts were crazy and outlandish, but what other choice did they have? There was no way to traditionally defeat Death. The dark being existed on multiple on overlapping plans of reality. The bastard was leading a concurrent existence that made him, well, invincible.

"No choice. Stall him." Hermione's eyes once again blazed and glowed white as she began concentrating.

This was their last chance.

Bellatrix flew into battle clashing with Death yet again. She had thought that the overpowered being would try to stop Hermione or try to finish it all, but, yet again, the being was just blocking her attacks. Had being technically immortal and invincible gone to the beings head?

She wouldn't put down her guard though. Death was still unpredictable and could change tactics at any moment.

Bella needed a bit more time to fire off another Time-Reversal spell, but she still had one spell that she could control that would be effective at stalling. Bella cast the spell as she parried another swing with her Dark Blade.

Stasis.

"Holding me in place isn't going to win you this battle." Death stood still, Excalibur still parried by the Dark Blade, both of them stuck in place.

"We're winning." Bella grit out. Luna had nearly dispersed the Dementors and the Inferi were all but burned by Helena's fire spells. The only thing left was to keep Death frozen and trust in Hermione's experimental spells... again. Her spells hadn't ever really failed them. It was promising at least.

"Do you think that is all what Excalibur can do? Why, Miss Black, there's a reason why I separated the Deathly Hallows in numerous pieces, especially this one. Did you think reviving the dead and using them as fuel for Dementors is all it could do? I haven't even utilized its full range! I could literally summon an Inferi Apocalypse if you'd want. Perhaps I will? After this so called 'last ditch effort' of yours fails." Death didn't even bother to try and break the Stasis. The time spell was effective, but it didn't last long. If anything damaged the caster or its recipient it could also prematurely dispel.

Death looked towards Hermione, the anomaly that he didn't think would have been the most useful anomaly to have existed. The girl was weaving her magic and trying to manipulate the last of the Deathly Hallows that wasn't in his possession or absorbed.

Would they succeed?

Truly entertaining. Too bad they hadn't joined him. Oh well, the outcome didn't really matter. Death would win no matter what.

Hermione knew it was time. This was the chance, the only chance they would have at possibly defeating Death.

The magic she was doing was simple. It was nearly the exact same thing she did with the incomplete Philosophers Stone combined with the Time-Turner as well as when she had created Volana accidentally.

"Lacesso." Innervate. Hermione channeled her magic through the cloak, saturating it and covering it with her own magical signature. The invisible cloak wasn't even invisible anymore as some of the threads on the cloak began to glow.

"Reducto." The cloak was torn apart into tiny particles that Hermione could feel were starting to dissipate. The particles were trying to dissipate and be reabsorbed into Death, but Hermione saturated every single part of the cloak with her own magical energy, making the particles stationary and unable to dissipate.

"Infundere!" Hermione screamed as each fragment of the cloak began to fuse with her own body. The magic she had injected into it made the process much easier, but still painful. She could feel the power, the darkness, the lure to Death, but Hermione was sound of mind. She could control it.

The Deathly Hallow had tried to exert its influence on her, but it had no effect. It was done.

This was the moment of truth.

Hermione opened her eyes, the once bright white glow was now dimmed with a tinge of darkness.

"You'd willingly fuse with a part of my soul just for the chance to destroy me?" Death taunted from where the being was still in Stasis along with Bellatrix.

Hermione knew that Death should have been able to destroy the Stasis before she had completed the fusion. Had hubris fully consumed him?

Perhaps, this was why Death always lost in this realm. He had lost his body and influence every time even if he had destroyed his enemy at that time. Did Death have no true will to win?

It wasn't important though. His existence needed to be erased.

Hermione charged towards Death while focusing the mixture of magic she had absorbed on her hand.

Bellatrix crashed to the ground as the Stasis wore off, but it was just enough for Hermione to clutch Excalibur.

Hermione could see Death's eyes as she used his own essence mixed with her own to snap the blade in half. Death had the ability to destroy his Deathly Hallows, but was compelled not to. Hermione now had a part of Death's essence and she was not compelled not to destroy it.

She could see the surprise when had begun absorbing the fragments of the splintered Excalibur into herself.

She could see the surprise when she used the same hand and thrust it straight into his chest.

Hermione knew the battle should have been harder. She knew Death was going to struggle and try to overtake her, but she had the advantage of absorbing the other Deathly Hallows before he had . But, it was so simple, so easy.

And, now?

Hermione was absorbing Death itself. Death's tie to Harry's body was already weak after being subjected to the Time-Reversal.

Had Death just miserably calculated? Did he not think this was possible?

They could see the dark female outline on Harry's body begin to dissipate. Thankfully, the wound Harry had to his heart had repaired itself.

The only thing that momentarily shook Hermione was a smile on the silhouette just as it disappeared. If Death had any other plan, it was too late.

Hermione retracted her hand, a ball of darkness was held at bay. Everything piece and fragment of Death she had absorbed, she pushed into the ball, the broken Excalibur and cloak included. Her eyes began to shine bright white again as all the darkness began to feed into the orb.

Bellatrix, Luna and Helena had suddenly flanked her, giving her a boost of magic to help her contain Death. Harry Potter's body slumped to the floor, but at least he was breathing.

"I can't hold this for long." Hermione could feel the orb of darkness try to disperse and try to seep in herself again, probably to try and take over her body.

They had no container, they didn't have an unlimited supply of magic to keep the being at bay for long.

If Death was released from the orb, Death wouldn't be able to return to their reality, since he had no anchor, nor host or body, but he would still be able to exist in their realm in his Deity form which was bad. If he desired revenge, he would be able to wipe the planet clean.

There was only one hope.

"Toss it in the Veil." Was the consensus the four witches had.

They could only hope that Death would not return to their realm in Deity form or try to anchor itself to the realm's reality again. If Death did choose to anchor itself again, it would at least take another several millennia. At least, it wouldn't be their problem.

The four went to the Death Chamber and tossed the orb that held Death into the Veil. Hoping that the being would get lost and never find its way back. With nothing left of the being left in their world, it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack since there were billions of realms within the Veil.

The witches were exhausted in every way, but they finally had time to breathe.

Hermione was still disbelieving how she had actually beat Death and survived. Death was a prideful being and that pride was Death's downfall. The brunette knew that in the end, Death's own arrogance had gotten him expelled into the Veil.

Death was finally gone, hopefully, forever.

Bellatrix wrapped her arms around Hermione and kissed her head as they just took a moment. Everything had been so hectic, that they barely had a chance to just stop and do nothing. Both witches were already planning on how to make up for wasted time.

In their peripherals, they could also see Helena embracing Luna, it seemed as if they weren't the only ones planning something. They would have to get the scoop on that when things calmed down.

Hermione sighed into the embrace, she knew the troubles didn't end there.

The Ministry was in shambles, they'd probably blame her for that too.

Hogwarts was destroyed, goblins probably wanted to kill her.

People were in panic and still thought she was a killer.

There was much to rebuild and much to explain. It was a nightmare in the making.

The scariest part though?

Hermione was going to be a mother in a few months.

Shite!

THE END.

Epilogue to Come.

Infundere - Infusion

Lacesso - Innervate

AN: Yes. This is the final chapter before the Epilogue. Hold any questions until after the Epilogue because the Epilogue will still be important and not just a closure kind of thing, it should answer any last lingering questions that have popped up again. I'm not sure if it seemed rushed, but this was always the direction on how it was going to go. I wanted to put more fluff, but the plot just gave them no time for more fluff x.x

Arrogance was Death's true weakness. Death always had the advantage no matter who the being was up against, but Death always wanted to see what everyone else was capable of. In all truth, I did not know how to even beat my own antagonist because of how powerful he was. (Took me months, serious :o)

Excalibur only broke easily because Hermione was using Deaths own essence against it. It was also only possible to do this due to the embedded Unicorn thread in her body that helps channel massive amounts of magic.

I'm not actually sure when I'll post the Epilogue, most likely a week, two at the latest maybe. Like I said, I've been having some trouble finishing up this story since there's so much that keeps changing and I'm also getting writer's block for it at the same time.

PS: I need girl names for their Baby! Post a review or send me a pm if anyone wants to suggest something. If not, I'll probably use a random name generator until it sounds nice x.x