Dis Lexics vault of Secrets
Ideas, plot bunnys that won't let go, possible future stories. feel free to pick up the stories if you like them.
And we're back with an answer to DZ2's Don't Fear the Reaper challenge, rules below:
DZ2's 'Don't Fear the Reaper' Challenge
Plot: When Harry was struck with the Killing Curse, Death didn't allow for the Horcrux to be forged within him: instead, he altered Harry and made him one of his disciples: A Grim Reaper!
Rules: Grey or Dark Harry
When Harry awakens his Reaper side, it must be because of some incident involving death or near-death (including the Dementors)
Harry's powers must somehow affect the abilities of life and death (Vita-Mortokinesis)
As a Grim Reaper, Harry has certain powers (see below)
When he becomes a Reaper, Harry frightens/intimidates the Light and Dark Side wizards
Certain Dark Creatures see Harry as a ruler/leader
Sirius and Remus must stay on Harry's side
Guidelines: Immortal Harry
As part of his Reaper change, Harry gains another form that's more demonic
In his Reaper form, or in human form, Harry eats souls to restore his strength
In his human form, Harry wields a weapon that can influence/affect life and death
Crossovers
If Harry saves one life, another must be taken in exchange
Slash
Azkaban becomes Harry's fortress of death
Death acknowledges Harry as the new Master of Death
Forbidden: Harry allied with either Dumbledore or Tom
Light or Evil Harry
Weak Harry
Horcrux Harry
Other than that, it's up to you.
Also, as part of the rules, Harry's powers must involve at least one of the following:
Umbrakinesis
Shadow Teleportation - or another form just as intimidating e.g. Flaming
Thestral/Dementor Command/Summoning
Demon Summoning
Soul Manipulation
Healing
Shadow-Healing
Telekinesis
Atmokinesis
Necromancy
Telepathy
Immunity to spells/potions/curses
Any others are welcome, but at least one of these must be used
Pay the Reaper
"Where am I?" asked Harry, looking around the dark space he now found himself.
The last thing the young Wizard remembered was falling off his broom after the Dementors swarmed the pitch and now he found himself in a dimly lit room with black upholstered furniture and a green fire burning in the grate.
"Good evening young master," said a voice from behind Harry, making him jump and spin in place.
Stood behind him in front of the door was a tall, handsome man with black hair, red eyes and pale skin, dressed in a butlers uniform.
"Who are you, where am I?" asked Harry, backing up a few steps, his hand twitching towards his wand, only to remember it was with his clothes in the Changing Rooms.
"My name is Sebastian Michaelis," said the butler with a bow, "As for where you are, that is for the mistress to explain. If you will follow me."
Sebastian turned and opened the door, stepping back to allow Harry threw. The boy hesitated for a moment, before leaving the room and following the butler down the hall. The hall was every bit as dark as the living room he had just left. It was lit with candles that burned with an eerie green flame and was decorated with finely crafted tables made of dark wood with ornaments or vases placed upon them. Harry examined the ornaments and quickly realized that they all had skeleton or scythe motefes and the flowers in the vases were either dead or poisonous. There were also paintings on the wall and they were all rather disturbing, showing scenes of death and torture. All of this together did not paint a particularly pleasant picture of Harrys host.
"Um, Sebastian was it?" he asked hesitantly.
"Yes, what is it young master?" replied the butler.
"Who exactly is it we're going to see?"
"You'll see," said Sebastian with a smirk as he stopped outside a door, "We've arrived."
The black haired Butler opened the doors and stepped inside.
"Madam, your guest has arrived."
"Good, send him in."
The voice was cold and emotionless but clearly belonged to a young girl. Harry gulped and stepped through the door. The room on the other side was a dark study, furnished with the same dark wood and black leather, lit by a green fire burning in the grate and a pail silver light that leaked through the large window that dominated the wall behind the desk. Sat in a huge wingback armchair behind the desk was a young girl who looked to be about 11 years of age.
She had long, silver hair held back with a black headband, flawless, pale skin and blood red eyes that seemed to glow slightly. She was dressed in a black dress with white frills around the sleeves.
"Welcome Harry Potter," said the girl, "sit down, we have much to discuss."
Harry hesitantly sat in the indicated chair across from the girl.
"Who are you?" asked Harry, "And where am I?"
"I am Death," said the girl, "And you are currently in Limbo. The Dementor Aura, plus the fall from your Broom has put you into shock and your body will give out in the next 20 minutes. Tea?"
Harry stared at the girl wide eyed for a moment before a snort of laughter emerged from his mouth and he started chuckling. Deaths eyebrow twitched slightly, although her face remained impassive.
"And what is so funny?" asked the girl.
"You're Death?" asked Harry through his laughter, "You look like a firsty! Isn't Death supposed to be a towering skeleton with a scythe?"
Unnoticed to Harry, the girls eyebrow twitch was increasing and her eyes were narrowing in irritation. Sebastian, who was standing behind his Masters chair, began to edge away from the agitated girl, eyeing her wearily as he did. Eventually, the girls irritation peaked and, with a flicker of movement, a massive scythe shaped like a spine with a skull at the top slammed into Harrys chair an inch from his ear, clipping a few hairs. The green eyed boy immediately shut up.
"When you're quite done," said Death, her eyebrow still twitching.
"Sorry," said Harry.
Death pulled her scythe from the chair, the weapon transforming into black smoke and vanishing up her sleeve.
"Excellent, now pay attention," said Death, "You are going to die within the next few minutes, but the choice you make here will determine whether you stay or go."
"What do you mean?" asked Harry.
"Riddle has gone further than anyone else in history in his attempt to avoid me," said Death, ignoring Harrys question, "He has mutilated his soul and placed parts of it into objects to keep himself tied to the Realm of the Living. In doing so, he made his soul so unstable that, when his body was destroyed, a part of his soul broke away and latched onto the only living thing in the room. That was you."
Harry went green.
"You mean I've got a chunk of that bastards soul in me?" asked the teenaged after swallowing the bile that came up.
"Not any more," said Death, "I removed it. Sadly, I was too late to prevent it from staining your soul."
"What do you mean 'staining my soul'?" asked Harry.
Death sighed sadly.
"Souls are affected by the owners actions in life," she began, "Those who live normal lives have grey souls, absolute saints have white and monsters have black. It is extremely rare for someone to have a pure white or pure black soul, with most people having slightly tinted grey souls. If a soul comes into contact with another then they will leave marks on each other. Normally this doesn't amount to much as most people are grey. However, should a White or Black soul come into contact with another, it will stain that soul with that colour. It won't affect the person in any way, but a stained soul cannot enter the other Afterlife. In other words, if a person is stained White, they cannot enter Hell. On the other hand, a Soul stained Black cannot enter heaven. Tom Riddle has the blackest Soul I have ever seen and, in the scant second it was in contact with yours, it left a stain that could not be removed in a thousand lifetimes."
"So, what does that mean?" asked Harry, a feeling of apprehension rising in his chest.
"It means you were marked for Hell before toy turned two years old," said Death, "When your Soul passes on, the only place it can go is down, regardless of how you lived your life."
Harry felt as if the bottom had dropped out of his stomach. He still wasn't sure whether he believed this girl was Death or not yet, but some deep, instinctive part of himself told him she was telling the truth.
"So is that what you brought me here to tell me?" he asked, "That I'm Damned to Hell?"
"No," said Death, "Despite what people might think, I do care about the Souls in my care, especially those who are Marked unfairly."
She snapped her fingers and a blank, white mask appeared on the desk.
"I called you here to offer you a place among my servants, the Grim Reapers. If you agree, your Soul will be removed from the Cycle and you become Immortal. You will become one of the Guides of the Underworld and will spend the rest of time collecting Souls. The other option is you die and spend an eternity suffering for crimes you didn't commit until you get the chance at Reincarnation. Unfortunately, your Soul is so badly stained it will likely never be clean."
Harry sat for a moment, just staring at the mask on the desk. Was there even a choice here? Either spend eternity suffering in Hell for someone elses crimes or spend the next eternity ferrying Souls to the afterlife.
"What do I have to do?" asked Harry.
Death nodded and indicated to the mask.
"Put it on."
Harry reached out and picked up the mask and lifted it to his face. He hesitated for a moment, before steeling his nerves and putting it on. There was an explosion of dark red energy and Harry let out an agonized scream as he felt power scorch its way through his veins. He was vaguely aware of his body changing as the power rushed through him, but all of his attention was taken up by the fact it felt like someone was burning each individual nerve ending with a blowtorch. After what felt like hours, but was probably just minutes, the red energy was sucked back into Harrys body with a dull sucking sound and he was dropped to the ground, panting.
"Very impressive young master," said Sebastian, "I don't think I've ever witnessed a Birth quite that flashy. I think we can expect great things from you."
"Oh great, more expectations," muttered Harry, reaching up to rub his head which was still throbbing slightly. As he did, he paused as he saw his hands were now covered with white gloves.
"Here," said Sebastian, rolling a full length mirror from...somewhere.
Harry got to his feet and stepped in front of the mirror, taking in his new body. He was tall and thin, but clearly well muscled as his black bodysuit showed off quite nicely. His hands and feet were covered with white gloves and boots and he had a brown leather belt strapped around his waist from which hung a spiked, guillotine like weapon. His face was covered with a plain white mask with angular eyeholes and a black line denoting the mouth with two stitch like marks at the corners. His form was covered in a tattered, hooded cloak with a pair of pointed, earlike decorations pointing out of it. All in all, he was pretty intimidating.
"This is your Reaper Form," said Death, "In this state, you can access all of your powers and reap Souls. The full extent of your power you will have to learn yourself as each Reaper is different, but standard powers include flight, intangibility, invisibility, an almost complete immunity to all magic and teleportation. You can return to your human state by removing your mask."
Harry did so and immediately shrank back into his skinny human form.
"In human form, you will be stronger, faster and more sturdy than the average human, as well as heal quicker. You should also be able to use magic without a wand and no one will be able to lie to you without you knowing."
"That sounds useful," said the boy-turned-Reaper, "So what now?"
"Now you get back to your body," said Death.
"Wait, I can go back?" asked Harry, surprised.
"Indeed," said Death, her lip twitching slightly, "Your human life isnt over yet after all. Besides, my Reapers spend most of their time in the Human World doing as they please unless I have something for them to do."
She snapped her fingers and Harry was sucked through the floor and back into his body.
And I'm going to end it there. I hope my explanation about the whole soul business made sense to everyone. I based Harrys Reaper Form on John Doe from Dream Eater Merry cus he looks really cool. And yes, that is Sebastian from Black Butler. As always, if you want to adopt this, feel free, but I do reserve the right to do my own version. Leave me a review on the way out!