Author's Note: Hello again! I got a few comments last chapter.
Thanatos, Aahna, and the other Spirits are somewhat inspired by the cosmic Entities of Marvel, which someone pointed out. Someone also mentioned the Endless from DC, though I'll admit that connection is purely coincidental as I don't know much about the upper-level DC hierarchy.
However, unlike the entities of Marvel or DC, there isn't some higher power for the Spirits in this story except the Spirits themselves. All of them answer to Thanatos and Aahna, but Thanatos and Aahna only answer to themselves and each other.
The Spirits are the closest thing this story will have to 'gods,' with Thanatos and Aahna acting as the highest level of the pantheon. This would technically make Harry and Luna minor gods as well, given they'll be Avatars of Death, Fate, and Life.
Anyway, hope that clears that up, and enjoy the chapter!
.
The days following Dumbledore's escape were chaotic. 14 people had been confirmed dead, with well over 30 suffering injuries ranging from mild burns to missing limbs and damaged magical cores.
Thankfully, it was somewhat mitigated with the news of Harry being alive, which boosted the boy's fame and popularity to new heights.
They called him unkillable, the next coming of Merlin, and a wizarding god amongst men. Nobody had survived the Killing Curse before, especially not Voldemort's, and especially no one had survived Dumbledore trying to kill them, nor had they played a significant part in crippling the world's strongest wizard.
Harry's other feats had come out as well. Protecting the Sorcerer's Stone alone gave him several days of headlines, not to mention him killing a Basilisk with Gryffindor's Sword and surviving a Basilisk's venom unscathed.
The Prophet had also been told about Fawkes and the phoenix tears and had spun the story to make Harry look like a Master of Phoenixes, who could summon any phoenix at any time to heal him.
All in all, when Harry finally left St. Mungos four days after the attack, after numerous trials to ensure he was healthy, he was completely bombarded by reporters.
"Mister Potter, is it true you can speak to phoenixes?" A reporter asked him.
"Mister Potter, how does it feel to have survived against the strongest wizards in the world?" Another asked.
"Mister Potter, Mister Potter!" A third reporter, a woman this time, yelled. "As the strongest wizard of your generation…"
Harry felt utterly overwhelmed by the questions, as dozens of reporters yelled over each other to ask him something, ranging from the courtroom attack to his dating life.
A BANG went off, startling both Harry and the reporters.
"Enough! Do you not have any decency?!" Sirius' voice rang out. "Can't you see my godson is still recovering?! Will you pressure the ill?"
The reporters scrambled back as Sirius walked through and took Harry by the hand, leading him away.
Sirius was dressed immaculately, fine silk robes around his body and his curly hair shining in the light of the hallway. His wand was in his other hand, pointed somewhat in front of him in silent threat.
Sirius didn't speak until they were ways away from the reporters, after which he immediately turned and hugged Harry tightly.
"You scared the shit out of me, Harry!" Sirius half-exclaimed, pulling back. "I thought you were a goner for a moment!"
Harry smiled as Sirius ruffled his hair. "I'm fine, Sirius. Aahna brought me back and patched me up. According to her, I had–"
Sirius put a finger to his lips, and Harry paused.
"Too many ears," Sirius whispered to him, leaning down so Harry could hear. "Let's go, I'll tell you more later."
He led Harry out of the hallway and into the reception area, while Harry looked around curiously.
On one side of the room was a reception desk, where a young witch sat, reviewing some papers.
The other wall was lined with somewhat nice chairs, a small coffee table with a radio, and several wizarding magazines.
The witch looked up as he and Sirius passed, flashing a beaming smile at Sirius.
"Off already, Lord Black?" She asked, leaning forward slightly. "I don't suppose you could stay to… unwind? It's unhealthy to be tense."
Sirius gave a charming smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, but seemed to work all the same on the witch.
"I can't, Harry here needs his rest. It'd be even more unhealthy to let a recovering patient stand constantly, right?"
The witch's smile faltered slightly, and she sighed.
"I suppose so, but if you ever need something relaxing, you know just where to look," She said with a wink.
Sirius began walking to the Floos at the far end of the room, pushing Harry along with a hand on his back.
"Siriu–" Harry stopped as Sirius put a finger to his lips and jerked his head over to the Floo.
"You have to say 'Black Family Home' and you'll be Floo'd over to where you'll eventually be staying," Sirius told him. "I've already keyed you into the wards, so you won't run into issues there."
Harry quickly Floo'd into Grimmauld Place, stumbling only slightly before he caught himself on some furniture.
"Looks like you're getting better," Thanatos said, sitting on one of the many chairs as Sirius Floo'd in.
"Thanks," Harry replied before turning to Sirius. "But what's going on? What's with all the shushing?"
Thanatos sighed. "Harry, do you remember that day poison was discovered in your food? Along with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny?"
Harry blinked; he'd completely forgotten about that with everything that'd been going on.
"Err– Yeah, why?"
"Well, we narrowed down the list of culprits," Thanatos rubbed his eyes, as if greatly tired. "It isn't anyone at Hogwarts, student or teacher."
"What? How?" Harry asked, shocked. "But the wards… they should've done something, right?"
Thanatos scowled, an expression that looked quite terrifying when you remembered he wasn't your average wizard.
"The wards are fucking duds!" He spat, sitting back. "I could sneak a fucking dragon through the holes that are in that thing, and I'd still have enough room to fit a Sphynx in on both sides!"
He took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"I apologize," Thanatos said, looking up at Harry. "But as I was saying, the Hogwarts wards, which should be legendary beacons of defensive power capable of vaporizing a Dark Wizard on contact, are instead nothing but cut-up drapes that probably haven't been properly powered since I was a student there!"
Thanatos rubbed his face. "I examined them during my investigation for the poison guy. It's no wonder dark creatures and objects get undetected in there."
Harry looked horrified, the last bit of normalcy he had shattering with the new information. If he wasn't safe at Hogwarts, where was he safe?
Sirius put a hand on his shoulder. "Harry, it'll be alright. We'll be here for you."
"Your training will continue as planned, thankfully you weren't out long enough to miss a class," Thanatos told him. "We'll be working more on control and refinement on Sunday."
He leaned forward, his face grave. "But Harry, I do need to tell you something important."
Harry gulped slightly but nodded. "What?"
"Since you accepted being a Death Touched, your body and magic will begin changing," Thanatos told him. "Be careful about how you speak to others from now on, Harry. If you aren't, you might accidentally curse them."
"What?!" Harry exclaimed, bewildered. "How?! I don't know wandless magic."
"I mean curse as in a witch's curse," Thanatos explained. "If you get angry and tell someone to drop dead, they will. If you tell someone like Malfoy to shut up, he'll become mute until you say otherwise. If you tell him to wipe the smirk off his face, he's likely to become permanently disfigured."
Harry balked at that, turning green at the thought of accidentally killing someone like that.
"But why?! I don't have your full power yet, do I?" He asked, slightly sick. "Wait, can you do that?"
"You have one of the Hallows already and have had it for a while, so you accepting the Mark means you already have a connection to me," Thanatos told him. "And yes I can, but I'm also capable of controlling it. It'll come naturally once you improve your magical control."
"So I can kill people–" Harry snapped his fingers. "–just like that?!"
Thanatos nodded. "Yes, you can, as well as curse them. Luna will have the opposite problem, where she'll be able to bring things to life by speaking to them. She can give people more magic just by saying so, but if she's not careful with doing that, their magical cores will implode."
Even Sirius looked green at that, having seen the recorded instances of people magically imploding while skimming the Black Library. It wasn't pretty.
"And another thing," Thanatos told Harry. "You and Luna, as future Avatars of the two most powerful cosmic entities in the universe, will share a deep connection. What that entails is up to you two to decide, but neither of you will be able to lie to the other, will know where the other is at all times, and will become stronger as you spend proximity to one another."
He flicked his finger, and a thick book flew over and hit Harry in the chest, staggering him a bit before he caught it.
"Study that. I personally wrote it to ensure you understand everything you need," Thanatos stated. "Nobody else will be able to read it, it'll just appear as an advanced Magical Theory book to anyone but you and Luna. Luna will get, or already has, her own copy regarding Life."
Harry nodded as he held the book. It was pretty hefty, about as thick as three of his textbooks put together, and about twice as wide. Truthfully, it felt more like a tome than a book.
"Do I… need to read all of this?" Harry asked, slightly unnerved.
"Eventually," Thanatos replied calmly. "For now, study the first five chapters until you feel like you've got the hang of what's in them. There are exercises at the beginning of it; they'll help you control your power quicker."
After that, Thanatos and Sirius told him to stay vigilant, and Sirius taught him a subtle spell that checked for poisons and potions in his food, which Harry greatly appreciated.
'The guy with the poison isn't from Hogwarts,' He thought as they prepared to leave. 'But how? Thanatos said the wards were bad, but how did a teacher not notice? There had to have been SOME sign, right?'
If they weren't a student, then they'd have to sneak into Hogwarts, probably right before or during lunch, and drop the poison without anyone noticing.
'But they were probably gone by the time everything was checked,' Harry thought. 'So they snuck in, avoided detection, poisoned my food, Ron's, and Ginny's without anyone noticing, and snuck back out before anyone could stop them.'
'The only thing I noticed was that draft,' He mused sourily. 'But… weren't the windows closed then? It was lunch, the only windows open are those near the Head Table, and I don't sit anywhere near there.'
A sinking pit in his stomach told him this was bad, but it didn't feel like Voldemort. Why would Voldemort attempt to poison him instead of just using Avada Kedavra? Harry hadn't noticed anything until the ring told him, so it's not like it was impossible.
He Floo'd back to Hogwarts with half a mind, wondering what would happen in the future.
Harry blinked as he exited Flitwick's office, along with Thanatos and Sirius.
"Woah… this feels… different?" He said, looking around.
The air felt lighter than usual, like a huge storm had just stopped. But Harry didn't see anything different.
"Yeah, that happened the day after the whole poison incident," Thanatos told him. "You just didn't notice because that damage to your Gateways dulled your magical sensitivity by a lot."
Harry nodded slowly; that made a bit of sense. After all, if his normal body was damaged that way, then he'd probably lose some feeling in it.
He looked around, and his brows furrowed.
"Where's Sirius?" He asked Thanatos. "I swear I just saw him."
"Went to prepare the last few things," Thanatos replied vaguely. "You'll learn about it soon enough."
Thanatos delivered Harry to his common room before waving goodbye, telling him he had a few things to do.
"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, running over to him.
She tackled him into a hug, nearly knocking him over.
"Harry, I was so worried! They told me you died a-and that Dumbledore's a criminal now. I didn't want to believe it but he hasn't come back and Professor McG– I mean, Headmistress McGonagall came by to confirm it but then they said you were alive and all of the things you did somehow got out–"
"'Mione!" Harry exclaimed, stopping her short. "Breathe."
Hermione flushed red, both at the nickname and the reminder, suddenly finding herself a bit out of breath as Ron came over.
"I was dead, but only for a little bit," Harry told them. "Aahna brought me back and healed me. And yes, Dumbledore's a criminal; I don't want to talk about it right now."
"Oh, alright–" Hermione's brows furrowed a little. "I didn't know Professor Marime was a Healer."
"The first Professor Marime anyway," Ron added, and Hermione nodded.
"Wait, what?" Harry asked, looking between them. "What do you mean the first?"
"You mean Sirius didn't tell you?" Ron asked. "Thanatos and him are both Professors now. Binns bloody disappeared mid-lesson a few days ago, freaked us all out. Sirius replaced him and Thanatos took McGonagall's old spot."
"Wait, wait, disappeared? How? I thought ghosts were like, immortal or something."
"Professor Flitwick says it was an exorcism, but no one knows who did it," Hermione answered.
Harry nodded slowly, his head spinning at everything he was learning today.
"Hold on… You said everything I did came out?" Harry asked. "Like, in the Prophet?"
Hermione nodded as Ron answered.
"Yep, they're calling you unkillable or something like that," He said with a tone of bitterness. "I'm pretty sure someone said you were like, Merlin's reincarnation or something like that, and that you can talk to phoenixes."
Harry blinked, his brain slowly trying to process that info bomb that'd just dropped on him.
He shook his head. "And you're not…"
Ron's ears turned red. "I guess I was, for like the first day or two. But I was more worried about you being, well, bloody dead and all that. You didn't tell them to do that, did you?"
The last question was asked hesitantly as if Ron had some idea he was trying to fragilely hold onto.
Harry shook his head. "No. I didn't even know it had happened. I'm not sure how the Prophet found out."
Harry actually had quite a large suspicion about who it was that told the Prophet, but he didn't want to accidentally hurt Ron by saying it, so he stayed quiet.
Ron looked slightly relieved, up until Hermione swatted him on the shoulder.
"See? I told you Harry didn't have a part in it," She said as Ron rubbed his arm.
"Bloody mental, I tell you," Ron grumbled to Harry. "All I said was that maybe Harry would've told them!"
"But why would he?" Hermione asked. "He's never asked for fame before, so why would he suddenly change?"
"I don't bloody know!" Ron hissed. "I swear, you're always jumping to assume the worst when all I said is that maybe the guy who did it would tell the Prophet that he did it!"
Harry felt his annoyance begin to grow as the two began bickering like an old married couple. Clearly, the last few days had stressed them out.
"Guys… Guys CAN BOTH OF YOU STOP ARGUING?!"
Immediately, both Ron and Hermione went silent as if someone had turned the sound off, and they seemed to relax somewhat.
'Oh, bloody hell,' Harry's eyes widened as he realized what he'd done. 'Thanatos was right.'
"Err– Uhh, both of you guys can talk, but uhh, can you not argue anymore? I just want to hang out with you guys for a while," He told them.
Both Ron and Hermione sighed, feeling an odd pressure on their chests go away after Harry spoke.
"Sorry, Harry. I guess… I guess we're just stressed," Hermione told him, somewhat sheepishly.
"Yeah, sorry mate. We'll try not to argue, ok?" Ron half-asked, glancing at Hermione.
After that, Ron and Harry went to play wizarding chess, and Harry smiled a little at the familiarity.
"Harry… Do you even understand this stuff?" Hermione asked halfway through the second game.
She'd been reading Harry's book instead of playing and was currently surrounded by several notes as she read.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked as Ron checkmated him again.
"I mean, I've never even heard of half the stuff this book mentions, let alone know what it means enough to understand it," Hermione told him. "And that's only the first chapter! I'd be surprised if this wasn't NEWT stuff."
"Oh, errr– I studied a bit while I was in St Mungoes," Harry lied quickly. "Thanatos gave me that book in order to study more."
Hermione shook her head. "Why would he give this to you? I mean, what's a Warzite Lattice Magical Structure?"
Harry blinked. "Oh, that's raw magic. The one inside your body and stuff. It gets passed from your core to other parts of your body, kind of like blood."
"I–" Hermione stared at him with an unreadable expression. "You really knew that?"
"Err- yeah?" Harry asked, somewhat confused. "Aahna explained it to me when I was recovering; it was actually pretty nice."
Hermione stared at him for another moment or two before returning to the book, muttering something under her breath.
"You always surprise me, Harry… You always do," She mumbled as Harry and Ron began another game.
Knowing about Sirius, knowing about Dumbledore, having a special ring made by Thanatos that just so happened to save their lives, and now knowing advanced magical theory and terms even she didn't?
'Is he getting extra tutelage?' She thought, not really reading. 'No… he would've told us, right? But he didn't tell us about Sirius… or Dumbledore…"
Hermione bit her lip. 'Does he not trust us? We've always been there for him, why wouldn't he trust us?'
As she glanced up at Harry, who was fully immersed in another (losing) game, she set her mind to a goal:
Finding out what Harry was hiding, and finding out how to help him if needed.
.
Author's Note: And that's the chapter! Lots of things going on, and a bit of build up.
I wanted Sirius and Thanatos to be professors for the longest while, now just seemed like the best time to do it.
I plan on Hermione being to first to find out and train, followed by maybe Neville or Ron. She's the smartest of them, so her finding out first feels natural.
Anyway, very late Merry Christmas and somewhat early Happy New Year's! I'll see you all in the next chapter, and year!