93

Harry and Zeref were relaxing by the lake close by their training field when Death walked up to them.

"Harry, Zeref," said Death, catching the two's attention. "You both did great these last 7 years. Now there isn't really much left I could teach you. You will have to learn when to use your new powers and abilities on your own. For now though, you both have completed your training."

Harry and Zeref stood up and bowed to Death. "Thank you for all your help, Death," they said in unison.

Death nodded in acknowledgement. "One more thing before I take my leave," he paused before continuing. "Harry, your friends will wake up tomorrow morning, but you and Zeref will wake up first. I would use this time to think of a plan of whether or not you want to stay or leave, Zeref."

"Thank you, Death," said Harry. "Thank you for all you have done for us." He bowed again.

"Yes, thank you, Death. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be able to control this power I hold," said Zeref with his own bow.

Death bowed his head. "You're both welcome. If either of you need me, just call my name and I will hear. Now I must go. I have fallen behind in my job. I have a lot of work ahead of me, sadly." Death turned to leave.

"Goodbye Death," said Harry and Zeref just as Death vanished into thin air.

The two magic users sat back down at the lake's edge and began planning what they were going to do.

"Do you want to stay at Fairy Tail now that you don't have to worry about your powers going out of control?" asked Harry.

"I think it might be best that I don't join yet, but maybe in the future," said Zeref. "I don't want to cause a huge uproar from your guild because some of them hate me for something I didn't do. I'll have to think of something that could prove what most of those things were used for."

Harry thought about what Zeref told him and an idea popped into his head. "Did you write in a diary?" he asked.

Zeref looked at him in surprise, and then thought about what he said. "I did... but it is with the demons that someone woke up. I believe they have been calling themselves Tartaros."

"Do you know where you can find them?"

"No," Zeref shook his head, "Tartaros is on a cube-like demon of mine. It moves around and doesn't stay in one place for too long."

"Alright, we'll find something out later on that then," said Harry. "So you don't want to join, but we should still stay in contact."

"I can agree to that. We could write letters to each other."

"Yes, but we should use nicknames. That way if one of my guildmates - not Natsu or Makarov though - found out who I was writing to they won't think it's you."

"That is a good idea. If someone were to find out where I've been hiding and they saw one of your letters they won't be able to pinpoint you. Alright, so what names should we go by. I would say Spriggan for me, but... I use that name when I'm back to being king of Alvarez."

Harry stopped and stared at his friend, who was confused as to why he was staring. "You are a king? You never told me that," said Harry.

"Oh...yeah, I'm a king, but I'm not there most of the time," said Zeref.

"Still, I can see why you shouldn't use the name Spriggan. People will be able to connect the dots. So we'll have to think of something else."

"You took me being a king very well."

"It isn't all that surprising once you think about it."

They two stopped speaking so they could come up with a nickname to go by in their letters.

"You know...my father and his friends had nicknames for their animal forms. What if we did something like that?" asked Harry.

"That could work for you, but I don't have an animal form," said Zeref.

Harry dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "We'll think of an animal that best suits you. Like a grim or cerberus."

"Why cerberus?"

"You are the Dark Wizard, you are Zeref Dragneel, and you are Spriggan. You have three identities like a three-headed dog," said Harry. "I once knew a cerberus..." Harry smirked. "His name was Fluffy."

"Call me that and I'll call you Coils."

"I could live with that."

Zeref sighed, "Couldn't you just call me Cerberus?"

"No one, but my old friends would get the reference, and even then they wouldn't be able to come even close to figuring out who you are."

"I will call you something other than coils. Like... boots."

"...Why boots?"

"You would be boots, because you would make fine leather boots."

Harry held up his hands. "Alight, alright, I'll call you Cerberus. For me, we'll stick with Coils. No one would guess me being a giant snake."

"The name Coils makes you sound like a tiny snake."

"Exactly. Everyone by now should know that I'm a giant serpent."

"Only the important ones. Like Tom Riddle, your guild, and whoever else Tom is working with."

"No one would be able to guess I was a snake though," said Harry. "Now that we have names for each other, we should come up with a way to track Tom and end him for good."

"Start telling me everything you know about him, and I'll start tracking him down after I leave this island," said Zeref.

Just as the sun came up the next morning, unseen by Zeref and Harry, the two death magic users felt their souls enter their bodies. It felt strange to them being in a body again. It was heavy and dark, due to their bodies being asleep. It took hours of not being able to move before Fairy Sphere went down. Harry and Zeref woke up right away when it did, that way they can do things without anyone else knowing.

Harry quickly turned back into his human form - although he almost forgot how to do it - and turned to face Zeref, who was climbing out of the dirt.

"I'll make sure to get some kind of messenger bird for us to use when sending letters," said Harry.

"Might be best to get two. That way if one of us needs to tell the other something important we'll have a bird at the ready," said Zeref.

"You're right. Anyway, you should get going. We don't want people to go crazy if they see you and find out who you are."

"Right. I'll send you something when I find a place to hide out at. See you later, Harry." After Zeref finished speaking, he teleported somewhere away from the island.

"Hey, are you guys here?!" Harry heard voices that belong to some of his guildmates, and they weren't the ones that he came to this island with. These voices belonged to those they left back at the guild.

Harry almost teared up at the thought of seeing them again. He didn't realize just how much he missed them.

"Natsu? Master Makarov? Erza? Harry? Lucy? Gray?!" Harry wiped the tear that threatened to leave his eye and called out, "We're over here!"

The first person Harry saw was Romeo, shortly followed by... 'Is that...Castor?' Harry thought in disbelief.

Castor had stopped in his tracks when he saw Harry. His eyes were wide, but then they filled up with tears. He started moving again at a faster pace and straight for Harry. Harry held his arms open for him and waited to have them filled with his son. The two fell to the ground when Castor collided with Harry's chest, and Castor couldn't hold the sobs back. He was just too happy to see his father again.

Harry barely noticed the others come down from the hill and moved to wake the others. It didn't take them long, and once everyone was awake they were all grinning from ear to ear in pure happiness. They cheered out their joy and tried to get used to how the others looked. For those from the island, they couldn't believe how much their fellow guildmates have grown, and for those left behind, they couldn't believe how no one from the island aged.

Harry pulled away from his son. "I think I'm ready to go home now," he said with so much warmth and love that it made Castor smile a wet smile.

"Yeah, let's go home dad," said Castor, but then he surprised Harry when he punched him in the arm. "But don't ever scare me like that again! Got it?!"

Harry's eyes were wide, but he couldn't get mad at him. He smiled and nodded his head. "I'll make sure something like this never happens again."

Macao was in the lead of the group while holding onto Makarov and said, "Let's get you all home and healed, everyone."

Everyone was on the ship heading back to the mainland. They couldn't stop having fun and being happy with seeing each other, but that was okay, as long as everyone was happy then so was Harry.

Harry was sitting on a bench stroking Fawkes' chest feathers while the phoenix stood on the railing of the ship. Next to Harry was Castor, who refused to let go and fell asleep.

"I thought I told you that you were supposed to be on my shoulder when we're on a boat," said Harry to Fawkes.

{Yes you did, but I thought I told you before. We're not on a boat. We're on a ship. I said this on our way to the island, remember?} said Fawkes.

Harry was confused for a moment, thinking back to the time they were heading for the S-Class trials. {You did say that, didn't you.}

{How could you forget?}

{I was busy while trapped in the Sphere.}

{Doing what?}

{Can't you tell?}

Fawkes stared at Harry for a solid minute, trying to figure out what was different about him. Harry waited patiently for his familiar to sense his magic, and while doing so he noticed Macao walking up to him.

"How are you doing, Harry?" asked Macao. "I see Castor has fallen asleep on you."

"Yeah..." Harry said while looking down at his son fondly. "He is reluctant to let go of me, but I can't blame him for that. It has been 7 years."

"I guess you heard then? About how long you have been asleep for?"

"Only my body was asleep. My soul was wide awake the whole time." Harry's statement confused Macao, but Fawkes squawked in realization.

{You're magic is stronger! You mean to tell me you have been training that whole time?!} said Fawkes.

Macao wore a look of utter perplexity. "What did he say?"

Harry laughed. "I was training with the grim reaper to learn how to be the Master of Death. Death used my time trapped in the sphere to train me," he said.

"The grim reaper was training you?!" Macao exclaimed, catching everyone else's attention, but luckily didn't wake Castor.

Harry nodded, "Yes, Death was training me while I was in soul form. My body was asleep while in Fairy Sphere."

"Lucky! That means you have gotten stronger for the past 7 years while the rest of us were snoozing," said Natsu.

"It wasn't my idea, and it was only for 6 years, not 7. The first year I was dreaming my full life before joining you guys," said Harry.

"So you remember everything?" asked Makarov.

"Yes I did. I also need to find some friends that I know must be looking for me."

Macao and some of the other Fairy Tail members that stayed back at the guild made eye contact with each other. The way they did it made Harry think that they knew something.

"Anyway, what have we missed while in the sphere?" asked Harry.

"Oh right. I haven't told any of you that yet, have I?" asked Macao. "Well, I've been the new Master since you all 'died', but I'm not as strong as Master Makarov. We almost lost our place in Magnolia to another guild. They are known as Twilight Ogre. The only reason we didn't lose our place was because of some new members. One of them you should know as Simon."

"Simon?" asked Erza. "Did he have a metal jaw?"

"Same one, Erza. He said you would be the first to recognize him. He and his sister joined because they wanted to thank Harry for saving his life," said Macao.

"They didn't have to," said Harry, but his smile showed how much he appreciated the thought.

"Also there is this new tournament known as the Grand Magic Games," continued Macao. "This is used to show who the strongest guild is nowadays. We enter each year, but we have yet to take first place. It was all thanks to our new members that we haven't hit rock bottom." He sighed with an air of defeat.

"Hmm... I'm not sure about this game proving who is stronger," said Makarov.

"You also get a lot of money if you win," said Macao.

Makarov's eyes gained a shine to them. "I'm in! When is the next game?"

Everyone laughed at their old master. Harry found it insane how the little guy could change his mind so fast when money or women were involved.

Harry turned back to Macao. "Are there any new members besides Simon and his sister?"

"Yeah there are, but they want it to be a surprise, so I can't give out names yet," said Macao.

"I wonder who they could be," muttered Harry.

Within a few more hours, Harry and the rest of Fairy Tail made it home to Magnolia. They saw some people standing in front of their guild.

"Who are they?" Makarov asked.

"Members of Twilight Ogre. They have been trying to overthrow us, but have not succeeded," answered Macao.

"Well then," said Harry. "I hope you don't mind that I deal with them in the old Fairy Tail style way, would you?"

Macao and everyone else grinned. "Go right ahead."

"Natsu?" Harry asked without needing to finish.

"Right behind you," said Natsu with his fist already aflame and a giant, shark-like grin on his face.

"Fire Dragon's Iron fist!" Natsu threw his punch at the back of one of the ogre members.

"Bombarda!" Harry cast at the other last two members. The entrance to the Fairy Tail guild hall was destroyed, and the Twilight Ogre mages were thrown out through the back of the guild destroying the wall in there too.

"WE'RE BACK!" Harry, Natsu, Makarov, Gray, Lucy, Erza, and everyone who were on the island for the past 7 years all cried out in joy.

The guild hall was silent for the span of 2 seconds before everyone inside the guild cheered and welcomed them home, and Harry had quickly found himself on the ground and in the arms of two people he never thought he would see here of all places.

"Welcome back, mate."

"Don't you ever scare us like that again or else I'll hex you."

The two that spoke were none other than Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

TBC

I had Castor and Romeo go with the others because I didn't see a reason not to. Also it made it easier for Harry to get all the hugging out of his son before he got jumped by his friends from Hogwarts.

Harry: They are there... D8

Enj/Dark: Yes they are. Happy I didn't allow you to see that part in the last chapter?

Harry: T^T

Natsu: Aww, there, there. Everything will be okay.

Voldy: I'm getting out of here before I toss up my meal.

Zeref: Oh no you don't. *grabs Voldemort before he could leave* It's your turn to say "review".

Voldy: Are you kidding me?

Enj/Dark: No he isn't.

Voldy: Fine...Please review.

Enj/Dark: There, that wasn't so hard no was it?

Voldy: *glares and then leaves*