166Death's Loyalty Card
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
Warnings: Completely AU (also means that people's names, birth dates etc. might be changed to fit into this story). Partly OOC. Possible time paradox.
Prologue
The young couple was spending a lazy afternoon in the park of their manor, eyeing their one-year-old boy play with his kitten with a combination of pride and amusement.
All of a sudden, a fairy-like figure in long, white robes swept into the park.
"I'm sorry for disturbing you on this fine Sunday," she apologized. "I am Fate; I'm sure you have heard of me. At this time, Death sent me to talk to you." Before the shocked couple could protest in any way, she continued, "Do not worry, he's not going to take anyone from you, it's just the opposite. We need your son to become the twin brother to an orphan, who died in his own time."
"All right, but why should we do such a thing?" the husband enquired in confusion. "What relationship does he or she have to us?"
"He's of your own blood," Fate replied, before she pulled something out of her robe pocket and placed it onto the table. When she waved her hand to enlarge the item, it became recognisable as a Pensieve.
"Just watch and you'll understand," she said in a soft voice. "It'll take you the rest of today to watch and prepare everything for his arrival, so I'm going to bring him here tomorrow evening. Will that be agreeable?"
The couple exchanged a horrified look, before they both replied as one, "Yes, we will do our best."
HP
Later the same day, when their fifteen-month-old boy was in bed, they instructed a house-elf to keep an eye on him and headed into the Pensieve together for a voyage through the worst memories they had ever witnessed. After two hours of watching, they were both leaning into each other, crying, and decided to continue after a break.
It took much consolation by each other as well as two calming draughts each to make the couple head into the Pensieve again later on – only to see more memories, which turned out to just only getting worse.
They witnessed horrible things and could not stop their tears, when the owner of the memories finally succumbed to his fate.
"That was so horrible. I can't…" She slowly trailed off, unable to follow any coherent thought.
"I know," he replied in a consoling voice. "We'll see to it that everything will turn out better this time. First thing tomorrow morning, I'm going to talk to my best friend. Some of these scenes, I need him to witness."
She could only nod under tears.
HP
Sixteen-year-old Harry Potter stared at the curse that speedily travelled towards his girlfriend, Hermione Granger, in shock. There was no way that he could prevent her fate by any means. He felt as if the world was coming to an end, as he observed her succumb to the curse.
"You bastard!" he shouted at Voldemort in absolute rage, who had already made use of the idle moment to send another killing curse in Harry's direction.
HP
By the time Harry's mind turned back to reality, he found himself in a small, quite naked room, sitting on a dark, wooden bench. Before him, a person completely clothed in black was hovering, staring at him in clear disdain. 'Who is that? Is he a Death Eater? He almost looks like a Dementor, but the cold feeling is missing,' he thought, however, was not able to further linger on his questions. Before he could get a clue or do as much as pull his wand, the person in front of him spoke up, sounding bored.
"Well, well, you managed to get yourself killed."
Harry shrugged. He did not feel in any way uncomfortable, and he recalled that Voldemort had just killed Hermione in front of his eyes. "Where are we?" he simply enquired.
"We're at my place" was the unsatisfying response.
"Who are you?" Harry then wanted to know.
"Death," his conversation partner informed him.
Harry stared at the figure in front of him for a moment, before realisation set in. 'Oh of course, that makes sense. I'm dead, so I'm talking to Death. Maybe he's something like the devil. Honestly, I expected to be able to advance to heaven to see Mum, Dad, Sirius and Hermione, but it seems as if I had ended up in hell. Oh well.' He let out a long sigh, when Death began to speak again.
"As the Master of Death, you're not able to die," he informed him.
"Master of Death?" Harry enquired, frowning.
"You're the owner of the Deathly Hallows, which makes you the Master of Death. You inherited the cloak from your father and the Elder Wand as well as the ring with the Resurrection stone from Albus Dumbledore, when he passed over to his next great adventure," Death explained.
Harry stared at the man in disbelief before eyeing the mentioned ring that was sitting on the ring finger of his left hand.
"Anyway, what do you want me to do?" Death suddenly enquired. "Do you want me to send you back to where you just came from?"
'What else?' Harry wondered, staring at Death in confusion.
"What else?" Death repeated his unasked question, before revealing that he could as well send him to a different place on the earth or - if Harry preferred it - to a different time, past or future, whatever he wanted.
"Oh, I can save Hermione," was Harry's first response, before he amended, "Maybe I should go back as far as to save Severus Snape. He saved my life multiple times, and that way, I should be able to save Hermione as well," Harry blurted out, wondering if that was possible at all.
Death merely stared at him, his face blank without any emotion whatsoever.
"Oh wait." An idea suddenly crossed Harry's mind. "I could even go and save Sirius."
"You could," Death agreed, sounding bored.
"But then I'd have to destroy all the Horcruxes again," Harry mused aloud. "Excuse me sir…"
"I'm not a sir. I'm Death," Death interrupted him, impatiently.
"All right, err, sorry, would it be possible to go back as far as to save my parents?" Harry asked, slowly becoming excited upon pondering his options.
Of course," Death replied, sighing. "You can go one thousand years into the past or the future if that's what you want."
"Oh okay." Harry remained pensive for a moment, before he spoke up again. "I should go to a time before Voldemort made his Horcruxes then."
"You could kill him as a baby," Death suggested.
"Oh no, I wouldn't be able to kill a baby," Harry blurted out, horrified.
"Excuse me, sir…"
"I'm not a sir," Death corrected him before looking at him in clear expectation.
"Ah, sorry, I mean, could you perhaps help me to get rid of the Horcruxes, so that I'll be able to kill him for you?"
"I'll offer you a deal then. I shall get rid of the Horcruxes if you marry one of the Death Eaters," Death suggested.
"A Death Eater?" Harry asked, incredulously.
"Yes. There are quite a number of witches among the Death Eaters," Death insisted.
"Do they have to be a Death Eater, when I marry them, or can I prevent them from becoming one?" Harry enquired, horrified at the idea of marrying someone like Narcissa Malfoy or Bellatrix Black.
"Ahhh, you're my death," Death replied, growling. "Maybe I should send you to the time of Merlin then, so that you can completely fiddle with the past and the future. Oh well, I'm not going to give you a choice anymore, and the deal stands. Close your eyes if you don't want to get very sick during the travel. I shall speak with Fate, and she'll arrange everything for you. I tell you something. Don't come back to me soon. You're totally unnerving. Oh, by the way, the Elder wand and your cloak will come to you, when you call for them. You will need them," he added, smirking.
"Yes," Harry merely replied in confusion, absentmindedly looking at the rings of the Potter, Black and Gaunt families, which he was still wearing, when he sensed the movement to begin and hurriedly closed his eyes. "Bye Death and thanks for whatever you arranged for me," he uttered as an afterthought, his thoughts going haywire upon realising that he did not even have the slightest clue about the arrangements – except for the fact that he needed to marry a Death Eater.
tbc...?
I will only continue this story if you are interested and willing to keep my muse motivated...
