Harry fell asleep quickly after a long day of dealing with the fallout of his ladies, as everyone had started calling them, telling their families about their peculiar bonding situation. He then had a long session of what the girls referred to as retail therapy. It was not very therapeutic for him, but the girls loved it. After meeting with Cyrus and developing a plan for the rest of the summer in regards to lessons, training, and fun, Harry said good night to all of the girls and retired to his room for the evening.
Once again, Harry found himself waking up, or at least having the feeling of waking up, in a dark void. The last time he had this happen, he met Fate.
"Fate, is this you," he called out into the void. Nothing responded, but a pale skinned woman in a black dress appeared in the void. She had dark black hair and bright blue eyes. She looked young, almost his age.
"No. It is not my sister," said the woman in a soft and comforting voice. "I know she told you about me though."
"Well, you are not Dream since he is a he, and you do not look like a he," replied Harry.
"We do not really have true genders as we are fluid beings that match what people perceive us as," said the woman. "It just so happens that you can accept us in our most true forms. Most people think of me a dark and evil being."
"You are Death," said Harry.
"The dark and evil part gave it away, huh," said Death. "You really do need to work on your mindscape. This is dark and dull."
"Sorry. I did not expect company so soon," retorted Harry. "Also, I have no idea how to create a mindscape."
"You will learn soon. Occlumency is where you will learn about it. Not really my area of expertise. More my sister's realm."
"Magic?"
"The one and only. I know a little bit, but only enough to pass some conversations."
"More than I would know apparently."
"True, but you are still young. I am eons older than you. At least I can pull this off," said Death as she waved her hand and a table and two chairs appeared. "Have a seat. We have much to discuss."
Harry sat down in the chair across from Death. If he hadn't already met Fate, this would have most likely sent him into the mental ward at St. Mungo's.
"So, Fate has dragged you into a fun adventure. She really does love your family. Me, I am not a fan of some of your earlier ancestors, but that is because they thought they were smarter than me. They thought they were, but the one you directly descend from actually was. He was a good man who happened to also be a powerful wizard, and one of Fate's favorite people. He was part of so many prophecies. And now it seems like she has taken a liking to you."
Death waved her hand again and pulled out a giant black book. She opened it up and began flipping pages.
"I can see why she likes you. You are very impressive," said Death as she ran her finger down the pages of the book. "Most people will never experience one percent of what you have in their entire lives."
"What is that book," asked Harry.
"This is my record book. Everything any mortal being has done is recorded in this book. Thankfully it is self-updating or I would never have time to do anything else. I can see everything you have ever done since the day you were born. Magically impressive even at only months old. Outbursts of accidental magic, some control over magic at only six months old. No wonder both my sisters like you. Kind of reckless, which makes sense with your family history. Your grandfather was a lunatic during the wars. He sent many evil people my way in his time on the battlefield. I know you found his journals. I would read those. He did some incredible things."
"I planned on it. Sorry to sound like I am in a rush, but why are you here," asked Harry.
"Fate did say you were a straight to the point kind of person. I am here to help end your minor problem so you can start working on your bigger problem."
"What is my minor problem?"
"The would-be dark lord who is just a twat," replied Death.
"He is powerful and very dangerous," retorted Harry.
"Yeah, but compared to you, he is an incompetent moron. One who has decided he does not want to meet me. I do not like it when people intentionally attempt to defy me. It pisses me off."
"These horcruxes are what are keeping him alive, right?"
"Yeah. Glad Magic helped get rid of the one in your head. That is just creepy. He made six more. You have already taken out one of them."
"You mean the one in my head."
"No. The diary. Remember, you were able to interact with a younger version of Riddle through that diary. That was a fragment of his soul. Now you have five more to find and destroy. The good thing is, I know where they all are. I am not sure what they are, which frustrates me that I cannot see them, but I can sense the broken soul."
"So where are they," asked Harry.
"All over the damn place. One is at a rundown old house. One is at the school, and another is in a bank. One is with a bitter old house elf, and the last one is close to Riddle. It is always where he goes."
"His snake," Harry thought out loud.
"That would be likely. Now I wish I could tell you more, but unfortunately, we are not able to divulge everything, not even to our champion."
"What restricts beings of power such as yourself?"
"We really do not know how all this stuff works. Even after eons, we still are clueless as to how we came to be or how we can do the things we do. There are just somethings that we have accepted as not possible, even for us."
"So find these items, destroy them, and…"
"Send Riddle to me," said Death with a dark and evil grin on her face. "I owe him a few lifetimes of torture. I do have more information for you as well. There are some things that will assist you greatly. Three items that I once gave your many times removed grandfather and his idiot brothers. People call them the Deathly Hallows."
"You don't refer to them as such?"
"No. I call them mistakes, but I can't undo the past, so I let them exist for times like these. You are my champion. Collect these three items and destroying Riddles little soul containers will be simple."
"And where do I find these items?"
"You have one," said Death. "Your father's cloak. That is the invisibility cloak that I gave to the smarter of the three brothers. He used it to not only hide from me, but also to protect others that could not protect themselves. The cloak was not able to hide him from me like he thought it did, but it did help him hide from his enemies, who would have loved to send him to me. I respected him. The other two were nothing like their brother. One was cocky, egotistical, and full of himself."
"Isn't that what cocky and egotistical means?"
"Yeah, but I could still use fifty other expressions to describe how arrogant he was and it still would not be an accurate description. He was the one who laid claim to the Elder Wand. I told him that the wand was the most powerful wand ever to exist, and the idiot believed me. Now, do you know anything about wands?"
"Olivander told me that the wand chooses the wizard," said Harry.
"That is one part. The other part is that the wand is only as good as the person wielding it. The person who holds it now is very powerful. He will surrender it to you when the time comes."
"Why not give it to me now?"
"Because you need to make sure you are worthy of it. You need to earn it's allegiance. You need to get stronger. You need to become more confident in yourself. It will do you no good until then."
Harry thought about what Death had just said. How would he know when he was ready for this all powerful wand? What did he have to do to earn allegiance from a wand? "You said there were three items. What is the third?"
"The second brother had recently lost someone and wanted a way to bring them back from death. I gave him what is referred to as the resurrection stone. It does not do what people think it does. It will allow a person to speak to the dead, but they are not brought back to life or resurrected. If they stay on this plane of existence for too long, it actually hurts them. No one thinks about how a spirit can actually feel pain."
"How can they feel pain?"
"In your mortal body, you have possible millions of nerve endings running all through and over your body. When a deceased spirit takes a physical form, that is a form of energy. They can feel energy. If you hit a spirit with a spell, they will feel it. The pain they feel is the energy that creates them wanting to dissipate. Anyways, as I was saying, the second brother wanted to bring his love back to life. I may have not been completely honest with him, but I never told him that she would be brought back to life. Long story short, she was not back in the way he wanted and, in the end, he took his own life."
"How will that stone help me defeat Riddle?"
"It is not good to keep a spirit on this plane for very long, but talking to spirits of the past who have knowledge of the issue at hand would be very useful I would think," explained Death. "Now, I wish I could tell you where it is, but something I blocking my view of it. I can see the other items, but that stone is not visible to me, which worries me."
"Why? That could mean that someone destroyed it."
"No. I would know if that had happened. It is still out there. I have no doubt you will find it. Now, do you have any questions?"
"A couple, maybe more. First, how do I destroy these horcruxes? The diary was with a basilisk fang. I can't exactly run around with something like that in my pocket."
"That would not be wise," agreed Death. "There is that sword you used to stab the big snake with. The goblins are really gifted craftsman. With their steel, the metal will absorb anything it comes in contact with that will make it stronger."
"Basilisk venom, said Harry.
"That is very potent stuff. Also, once you are ready and take possession of the Elder Wand, that killing spell, or at least that is what they think it does, will be very useful."
"That is illegal."
"Make sure to ask my sister about how unbelievably wrong you mortals are when it comes to how magic is used. That particular spell is very good at killing mortals, but do you know how it kills someone?" Harry shook his head no, never having asked how it actually worked. "When the spell comes into contact with a living being, it separates the soul from the body. This first came into use when witches and wizards needed to vanquish demons from people. The spell helped eject the unwanted spirit inside the host body. If used properly, people would survive this as they were not having their soul removed, but another unwanted one. Eventually, an evil prick used this to separate the soul from another non-possessed body, and they found out it killed the person. Now evil jerks had a way to kill other people quickly and without any evidence. Anyways, once again we are getting off topic and deep into Magic's area of knowledge."
"You seemed pretty knowledgeable about that," suggested Harry.
"I know that because it is what provides me with dead to interact with. Now, based off what I have discussed with you so far, how would that particular spell be useful to you?"
Harry pondered on the question for a moment, jumping back in his memories to figure out the answer. It didn't take long for Harry to figure it out.
"Separates the soul from the host," said Harry.
"Exactly. Hit those containers with that spell and the spirit shard will be forcefully evicted. The one in your head was removed by your raw power and pure magic that you were able to finally access."
"I take it even if I ask you how I did that…" began Harry.
"Talk to Magic," said Death. "That was all her. Well, Now that we have covered all of that, I say we end this conversation for now."
"Hopefully I will remember this when I wake up," said Harry, realizing that he usually could not remember his dreams."
"Don't worry. Dream will ensure that this scene reappears throughout your sleep so that you can remember."
"Why does he allow nightmares?"
"He tries to prevent them, but the mortal mind is very complicated and you all can imagine some insane things. Nightmares are your fears, or reveal to you your fears. That might be a fun conversation to have with our little brother. He can be quite interesting if given the chance. Well, enjoy your sleep Harry. I'll pop in and visit every now and then, just to see how you are holding up."
"Good bye Death," said Harry as she faded away. Harry then drifted into deep sleep.
