It was over.
That was the thought running through Harry’s head. Finally after years of disasters and near death experiences he did it and killed Voldemort. If he was being honest, it felt sort of surreal, after all he had spent his entire life defying the odds and surviving even when there was nothing to keep him going.
He looked up and his eyes met with Draco Malfoy’s, he nodded slightly with a small smile, Draco nodded back. His heart swelled. He felt nothing but relief at his survival, which confused him considering his complicated feelings that had always seemed to be cast in suspicion and childish hatred towards the other boy. Guess he was over that now.
After Draco’s help in the manor and with the fiendfyre in the room of requirements, his feelings towards the Malfoy heir seemed to be turning in an entirely different direction. He turned away making his way to where the Weasleys were huddled together.
His chest ached.
Fred. Remus. Tonks. And countless others. Even Snape, he had such terrible mixed feelings about the man.
Actually his chest hurt a lot more than he realized and he really needed to sit down. He left the great hall, trying to find some quiet. He turned a corner and leaned his hands against the wall, he really couldn’t deal with people looking at him right then. He heard footsteps sounding behind him. He lifted his head wearily. Ron barreled into him, and snatched Draco Malfoy’s wand that he had forgotten was stuffed in his back pocket. He stumbled back in shock.
“Ron-?”
“Sorry mate, but you surviving really wasn’t the long term plan.” Hermione was behind him and Harry stared at them both in numb horror.
“Goodbye Harry.” She said before a green light over took his vision and then nothing.
He woke up in white kings cross. Laying down on his back he tried to put the pieces together. His best friends for over seven years just murdered him in cold blood right after he had saved the wizarding world-again, he might add.
“What the bloody fuck was that?!!” He swore.
“You just got killed.” Someone supplied helpfully. He looked up. A man dressed in a leather jacket and some sort of band t-shirt was looking at him in something akin to pity and righteous anger.
“Who are you? And where’s Dumbledore? I met him here last time, don’t get me wrong Sir, I’m sure you’re fine. It's just I’ve got a lot of questions for him and I would really like some answers.” Harry jumped up, he was close to imploding in rage, he had just been betrayed and all of his instincts were telling him that Dumbledore had something to do with it.
Which didn’t make much sense but he hadn’t survived by ignoring his instincts.
“I think you’ll find that I can answer just about every question you have without the riddles perfectly well. I suppose I should introduce myself. You know me as Death. I’m dreadfully sorry I couldn’t meet you here last time, there was a spot of trouble your old headmaster caused to be able to meet with you before, not to worry it's all taken care of now. I'll be doing my best to help you now master.”
Harry blinked. He inhaled very slowly trying to go over the words that had been spoken to him and pick out what he wanted to say. It was a new experience for him to be this thoughtful. He quite liked not blurting out whatever came to mind, even when he was trembling in fury.
“Right- okay. One moment please sir.”
Harry leaned forwards putting his hands on his knees and screamed.
Then he stood up.
“So you’re Death? And you called me master, I thought that was fake, or just a title or something. I didn’t even have all the hallows on me when-“ He paused, not really ready to face that particular truth yet.
Death smiled. It was disconcerting but also reassuring, Harry wondered what that said about him, that he thought death would be a good hugger.
Suicidal maybe?
“Yes, well it is more of a title, but it does come with privileges, and you own the hallows it's not something that just goes away, you are the first Master of death, well ever actually. But that does leave a bit of wiggle room for you to play around with.
It’s more like I’m your patron than you’re my master, you mastered death sort of like graduating a college course or something not that you own me or anything.
You see, when I gifted the Peverell brothers the Hallows, I had an idea that there would one day come a time that you would gather them all. Of course my sister Fate was a bit baffled about the entire exchange, seeing as we figured you would have to write your own but even we didn’t see how cocked up it got towards the end.” Death paused and gave him a look that really didn’t mean much of anything to him.
“I should take this a bit slower shouldn’t I? Alright let's take this one thing at a time.” Death motioned him to take a seat on the bench and sat opposite on a chair that appeared behind him.
“What is it you really want to know first? I should say we have all the time in the world here.”
Harry sat he was feeling sort of numb but not enough to forget his death a few minutes ago.
“I would really like to know why I just died, I mean I really didn’t see it coming.” Death shook his head.
“No I suppose you wouldn’t have, what with all the compulsions and potions and curses you were on, honestly it's a miracle you made it as far as you did. I'll tell you the basics but you would have to make a choice if you wanted to know more than this. You see, Dumbledore had a plan-“ Death made a face here. “ A plan that included several contracts including a marriage to one Ginevra Weasley and one that gifted her all your assets upon death. His plan went mostly right, but for the big payday to actually happen you needed to die, and die as unaware as possible. Of course he didn’t do it alone, no, there was Molly Weasley she knew just about everything, but the twins for example had no idea. I can’t tell you everything without making things difficult but I’ll say as much as I can.” Harry swallowed. For some reason He trusted death, after all he’d already died twice.
“Let me just sum up what you’ve just told me. You’ve just told me that Dumbledore and -some of the Weasley family were plotting to kill me and likely have been for years, considering Dumbledore died a while ago. And I've been drugged and cursed to all hell so I wouldn’t go against their plans?” Death flashed a terrible grin.
“That is about right. Except for the fact that Dumbledore didn’t die, he made a horcrux a while ago and faked his death.”
The betrayal hit Harry like a sledge hammer. Dumbledore had made a bloody horcrux. He felt like he couldn’t breathe.
“Hey focus on me, you can do this.” Death put a firm grip on Harry’s shoulder. Harry nodded rapidly gasping in air. Actually was there even air here? He was dead.
Harry was now being slightly hysterical.
“Lets ignore the trauma for a minute, its something you have a ton of practice with anyway.” Harry choked on a laugh. Truer words hadn’t been spoken.
“Tell me about this master of death bullshit.” Harry asked hoarsely, changing the subject.
“You got it master.” Death winked. Harry nearly groaned. That was going to get old, he had barely got Dobby to stop calling him by all those ridiculous titles- and he really didn’t like the idea of comparing literal Death to a house elf.
Death was sporting an amused smile, somehow catching wind of the directions his thoughts were going.
“Right, so it's not like you're actually my master-“
Harry let out a sigh of relief.
“Right, so it’s more of a title, and basically it's been your destiny to become the master of death since I first handed out the hallows. I don’t want to confuse you but you are now my hands and feet on earth. I might ask you to do something, or to restore the balance of life and death, you really shouldn’t worry too much about it, none of it will be bad or against your moral code. Like I said we have a symbiotic relationship like birds on rhinos, except I’m the rhino and your the bird.”
Harry didn’t quite get it but he supposed that it was better than some of the things he’d had to do.
“So on to your extra special deathly privileges,-“ Death clapped his hands. “-they are as follows. I gotta send you back into life. You can’t stay here. I mean you can- but not for long, and you can’t move on, that’s the downside here.
Also your immortal, you can still die -sort of, but you just end up here again and you wont really age past your prime, its a bit complicated to explain. But basically you’ll have to either age yourself artificially and fake your death or some other plan if you don’t want to outed as an immortal. Maybe pretend to be a vampire or something.
You are the proud owner of the deathly hallows, they’ll follow you where ever you go, you literally cannot lose them anymore. They’ll be like a loyal dog, just treat them nicely.
I also have a few options for you, I really had to haggle for these ones but make sure you take your time choosing.
Okay?
So number one you can reincarnate, with or with out the memories, you wont get to pick where or who or when much beyond whether you want an exciting or calm life that time around, number two you can just go back to the moment you died, meaning when Ron and Hermione killed you earlier.” Death gave him a devious smirk.
“I can just imagine their faces when you just sit up after the killing curse again.” Harry felt his face mimic Death's expression. His maurauder spirit hadn’t quit just yet. The truth still wasn't hitting him yet with the information dump.
“That would be a hell of a karma to throw at them.” He agreed. “Anything else?”
Death sobered.
“ Of course- then you’ll still have all those contracts that’ll make you basically penniless.
Right the last option, Time really got on my ass for this one but we came to an agreement, what with Fate taking a special interest and having so many of her plans messed with.
You can have a redo of this life, but you have to go back to a time when you were close to death. And there’s really only one suitable time for that.” Harry gave him an incredulous look.
“I almost die every year of Hogwarts and there’s only one time?” Death nodded.
“You have to be actively dying, and you really came close with the basilisk, that’s the time.” Harry sighed but conceded the point. Not like he was about to argue with literal Death about death.
“Is there anything else I should know? Like its a title but do I have to do anything?” Death gave him a crooked grin.
“You- you really are a good person, even though you haven’t had much time to be one without interference. There’s a few things but their very simple and you wont notice them much whatever you choose. You can give blessings of death, that means you can sort of make sure people have a bit of peace when their time comes. It wont change anything for them while living, but while they die they will be peaceful.” Harry blushed but nodded, there were a few people who definitely deserved a peaceful passing.
“You also can help ghosts pass on, only if they want to of course, but you could help ease the process, after all there are a few ghosts that end up losing themselves if they are around long enough. As for something important that might come up, a few beings will be able to instinctively know who you are, mostly ghosts and others closer to the veil. They wont be able to address you with your title unless you give them permission or are completely alone. I feel this is a good failsafe what with the potential problems that could show up. And you should know, you can tell how many people a person is responsible for killing. I want you to understand, this is in no way a character judgement, most people have indirectly contributed to someone else’s death, it’s just a thing like what if one person frowned at a suicidal person and they killed themselves directly after? Its just not feasible to go through life without making at least one mistake of that sort and most people would have two or three accidental killings. Of course you can also pick out serial killers now and that’s rather helpful in knowing who to avoid. In fact I think after a while you’ll be able to differentiate between malicious killings and accidental if you practice enough.” Harry smiled wanly. While useful he felt death might be skirting around an issue.
“Can I see my family? Or maybe join them? If I don’t want to reincarnate or come back to life?” Harry asked hopefully. Death shook his head a sad look coming over his face.
“I’m sorry, you can’t. You can see them with the stone, but you have to go back for that, and sometimes its better to let the dead rest. I know you really wanted to meet them and get to know them. I can’t give you that, you’ll be the master of death for the rest of eternity, you can’t go where they are.
You can however, go to limbo and meet them for a few minutes but after that they’ll have to leave and so will you, limbo is not the most hospitable place.” Harry sighed. Of course, bloody Potter luck. He supposed he could understand though, after all only the dead can be with the dead.
“I think I want those few minutes, do you think you can take me there? I don’t know if you have things to do or anything…” Harry trailed off. Death nodded.
“Yes I’ll take you, you don’t have to worry about my schedule, I have minions after all, the only reason Dumblefuck was able to see you was he was causing some trouble I had to take care of personally, and had a really rare ritual, plus a connection to you. That man is really obsessed with you.” Harry half choked and groaned.
“I can’t believe I listened to him, I mean looking back all the near death experiences are a bit too coincidental.”
“That’s because the potions and curses and shit don’t work on you here, notice how you’re thinking a bit more clearly? If you kept on as you were, you never would have doubted.” Death gave him a grimace.
“Time came by and told me that one of your possible future children would have even been named after him, Time is a bitch like that sometimes.” Harry turned green. He was throughly brainwashed then.
“Hey I think I’m gonna need a bit more information before I fully commit to option number three. Just a few questions really.”
“Fire away, just remember somethings you have to find out for yourself, you should know though, pretty much everything you’ve learned about the wixen world have been pushed through a fine seeve.”
Harry groaned loudly.
“I didn’t even know it was called the wixen world!! Whatever nevermind! Walk me through the logistics of ‘waking up’ in the chamber of secrets, I mean will I still have all those potions and curses? Things like that.”
Death nodded sharply.
“Right, the short answer is yes, the long answer is since you are now aware of them they will be easier to work around and fight off. There are ways to remove those, I personally recommend the goblins, they’ll do pretty much anything for the right price. And considering you haven’t touched your vaults yet, now or ever, you definitely have the cash for it.” Harry blinked.
“Wait, I have money? Oh right you said about the stealing and the contracts, shit I’m completely out of my depth.” Harry rubbed his forehead, which reminded him.
“I’ll still have the bloody horcrux won’t I.” He despaired.
Death gave him a pitying look.
“I know, after all that work to get rid of them too. I should mention that part of youre duties are to uphold the laws of death, they are really simple, just the basics, don’t try and cheat death, don’t steal from death and respect death. And you know respecting the different cultures approach to death and the afterlife. Which means that while you may not believe in their gods or religion you should still believe and respect their traditions surrounding the loss of a life, we are accommodating in the afterlife after all. Simple stuff. About the horcruxes, you have a duty to get rid of any you know of, including bumbledore’s. You should see the goblins about that, maybe read up on the law and magical culture. You have a lot of catching up to do.” Harry nodded grimly.
“Here, how about I take you to limbo now, you look like you’ve had enough revelations.” Death firmly put his hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t leave my side, just because you’re the master of death doesn’t mean you wont get lost in limbo.”
On that disturbing note, the white kings cross faded away and in front of them was a large window, surrounded by white walls. On the other side were his parents, Sirius, Remus and even professor Snape.
“Harry!” They exclaimed- minus Snape of course, he just looked vaguely disgruntled about the whole thing. Which was par the course, even though objectively Harry knew him best out of all the people present.
His mum and dad put their hands up on the foggy glass and Harry responded by doing the same.
“What happened?! Why are you here? And why are you on this side of the glass?” His mum questioned.
“I died again, and because I collected the deathly hallows I’m the master of death and now I actually can’t die all the way.” Harry summarized. They all gaped at him. Then to his surprise Snape barked out a laugh.
“I can’t believed it! After Albus spent all those years searching, you found the deathly hallows and thanks to you’re potter luck became the master of Death!” Snape looked like he was close to losing it, and it was freaking him out so Harry turned back to his parents.
“Again?” Sirius muttered blankly.
“Right, I wish I had the chance to really know you but, I’ve only got a short time, something about being in limbo too long, I’m sort of planning on going back in time and living my life over since pretty much my entire life was spent on potions compulsions and curses, this sort of feels like cheating, but since I’m the master of death I’ve got a bit of leeway. Any advice?” They looked stunned for a moment and with a quick glance at each other they did that thing where two people can read each others minds if you know them well enough. His father spoke first.
“Harry, we love you, we always will, I just want you to know that. The first thing you need to do is check on your vaults that we’ve left you, get rid of all the compulsions and curses and then find people to have your back. We left a will you should be able to get it read at gringotts. There’s a lot about our family that I wish I had the time to teach you, but you’ll have to rely on our ancestors paintings and journals, remember just because we can’t be with you doesn’t mean we forgot or don’t care anymore, I think about you everyday, news in the afterlife is hard to come by but from what Sirius and Remus have been telling me, you are a brave young man and I couldn’t be prouder.”
Harry thought he might cry.
“Even though I’m mostly doing this for revenge and a chance to live as myself, I really want to know more about our family history. I promise I’ll look into it.”
“Prongslet, I don’t know if you want to but if you could free me from Azkaban that would be much appreciated, I also left you a lot of things, so don’t feel bad if you can’t though, I lasted for twelve years, I can last for longer.” Padfoot assured.
“Don’t worry, I’ll do my very best to get you a trial, and actually you’ll have already escaped by the time I’ll be able to do much.” Sirius flashed him a wolffish grin.
“Of course, I’m a genius. Remember to watch your back, you’ll have more enemies than friends when you go back but try to trust your instincts, they're good even when you're all doped up on potions, I'm sure if you think back you’ll find a lot of suspicion that got swept under the rug. Trust yourself Prongslet.” Sirius held a hand to the glass and then stepped aside for Remus.
“Cub, you’re smart and resourceful, and a fast learner, you can figure this out. You can have a good life, even though you want revenge try to consider what comes after. Whatever you decide, I have faith you’ll figure out how to be happy.” Remus gave him a crooked grin.
“And I’m sure you’ll be able to rip the bastards who did all this to you and us to pieces.”
On that bloodthirsty note, Remus put his hand on the frosted glass.
Snape spoke up then.
“You will have enemies in every corner, you will be targeted by many simply for your name and power. If you do this, you should know, I took an unbreakable vow to do everything in my power to protect you back when I started working at Hogwarts. It wasnt enough obviously, I have suspected for years before the headmasters death that he had unsavory motivations. But I was too indebted to the man to throw off his leash. If you decide to go to me for help, you must convince me of his lies, the best way to do this would be the reading of your parent will, your living conditions as a child and you’re medical history. Not to mention informing me of the headmasters access to your accounts.” Snapes eyes glinted in frustration.
“I myself discovered upon my death that I was under a high level compulsion. Understand that most of how I treated you came from misconceptions and meddling. I would still have tried to keep a distance but never what you endured. I was forced to be unfair in many things. Never the less. I apologize.” Harry blinked.
“I- Well that’s- yes why not, just add it to the headmasters tab, it’s not like he hasn’t ruined the rest of my life, sending me to the Dursleys, organizing a death trial every year of school, convincing me to kill myself to kill Voldemort, stealing from me since I was a baby, setting up a marriage contract without my consent- even Mrs weasley appearing at the train station was a bloody manipulation!! And let’s not forget all of the gaslighting when I tried to tell people let him just twinkle his eyes and say you must be mistaken, my boy and everyone will just believe it! And the faking of his death! Fucking bloody horcuxes popping up left, right and center!!”
Harry’s breath was coming fast and short again. ‘Great another panic attack.’
He thought hysterically.
‘Ah no he said that out loud.’
That too.
All the adults went pale at Harry’s minor meltdown.
His mum turned bright red. She rounded on Death, looking entirely enraged.
“You!! You’re Death aren’t you! Tell me there’s a way to make people suffer after they die! Once he get here I’ll be the one to greet him!!” She was spitting at the mouth. Death gave her a gleeful grin. Everyone shuddered. And Harry was disconcerted enough to focus on the present for a moment.
Not an expression you want to see on a deity.
Lily- mum- whatever. She just looked delighted.
“Ah! I was hoping you’d ask! You see just earlier I had to clean up a little mess he made, and what with Harry here being my master, I was well within my rights to a little retribution. You are all invited to go scream at him for as long as you wish. Keep in mind though, Time and I are collaborating on Harry’s redo, so there’s not much time left before I have to get back to work, his horcrux is making things a bit difficult.” Lily potters eyes gleamed.
“That’s quite alright, I’ll take what I can get. Harry, when you go back you are not to let people walk all over you. You give back five times as much of what you get. Consider this a motherly lesson. I wish I could have had more time with you, I’m proud of how strong you’ve become in our absence. I love you.” His mums eyes were a little wet, as were everyone else’s.
“Thanks mum. I just want to live without someone pulling the strings. I’ll try my best.”
“Just take what you want from life and worry about the consequences when they come, live like there’s no tomorrow, my love. Even though you apparently have nothing but tomorrows, take what you need to be happy.”
“I’m proud of you son.” His dad tacked on.
“You can do it Prongslet. I know you’ve never had someone to walk you through the differences between magical and muggle, so you should go to gringotts and get your account manager to explain things. Its not perfect but- it should at least get you started.” Sirius was doing his best to hide his tears.
“Cub- I know I’ve let you down in the past, please just knock me on my arse if I do anything wrong, I’ve always believed that you would have been cared for if I only stayed away, but werewolves don’t work like that, it’s literally against our instincts to leave a cub unprotected. You should make sure I’m not cursed, I wasn’t by the time I died but really leaving you for twelve years shouldn’t have been possible on the biological level for me. You’re my cub.” Harry nodded. This was both enlightening, and depressing.
“You have lived through- honestly more than almost anyone I can think of and at an alarming rate, since even before you even reached your majority. I have nearly every confidence that your potter luck will hold true, and you will survive this next life mostly intact. But do try to be careful, I had a hell of a time trying to keep you from dying. There’s quite a lot of people trying to kill you, no need to add your own stupidity into the mix.” Snape offered a few words of his own. Oddly it reassured him in ways he hadn’t thought possible.
“Mum, Dad, you gave your lives for me and I’ll always remember that. Sirius, you were the first person to offer me a true home, I’ll always be in your debt. Remus, you taught me so much, its saved my life on more than one occasion. I hope to see you all again. Maybe not like this though.” Harry shot Snape a look. He didn’t quite know what to say to the man but knew he wanted to say something.
His parents, Sirius and Remus gave their farewells, but Snape stayed behind for a moment.
“Professor, you’ve been saving my hide behind the scenes for far longer than I ever knew, sorry for being such a little shite to you in class.” Harry said looking down. Snape smirked at him.
“Never thought I’d live to see the day a Potter apologizes to me.” Harry grinned.
“Technically you didn’t.” He helpfully pointed out.
“Technically you didn’t- sir.” Snape snapped. Harry glanced up at him in surprise. Snape had an almost imperceptible smirk on his face.
Harry grinned fully.
“There’s no need to call me sir professor.” Snape gave him a small smile.
“Good luck with living, Harry.”
“Goodbye Professor.”
Death put his hand on His shoulder and they were back to kings cross.
“I never asked, but if that was limbo. Where are we now?” Harry questioned. Death grimaced.
“It’s slightly complicated to explain. You see there are quite a few different places and states of being, I won’t go into specifics, however the short answer is, you have only sort of died, everyone else usually dies all the way, and crosses through limbo, you didn’t so you had to step to the left a bit there. You’re just special like that.” Harry sighed.
“Its always me isnt it.”
“Yes my sister fate really likes you.” Harry switched gears, not ready to unpack that, if he ever would be.
“So anything you can tell me before I give this another go?” Death gave him a contemplative look.
“Follow advice and talk to the goblins, fix all that damage done by the potions and horcruxes, figure out how you fit into the wixen world, gather your power, make allies, take revenge and decide how to live your life without too many existential crises. Anything I’m missing there?”
Harry shook his head.
“Ah wait, what is Dumbledore’s horcrux?”
“Oh good catch- it’s a heavily enchanted amulet that he wears under his robes, he’s far too paranoid to ever let it out of his sight and since it’s always in close proximity and he’s only made one, he only went slightly crazy instead of throughly insane like Riddle.”
“Fat chance of me getting my hands on it then.” Harry muttered.
“You’d be surprised.” Harry sighed.
“Anything else?”
“Right well, if you're asking if there’s anybody you can trust right off the bat, I’m sorry to say that almost everyone I could recommend is under some sort of compulsionor potion. I guess the best I can give you, while you're still under someone else’s influence, make your moves as subtle as you can and hope the wrong people don’t notice before you're ready. This will be particularly hard considering how closely you're being watched at the time you go back.”
Harry nodded his head feebly.
“Play the snake in lion's clothes, Master.”
Harry blinked. Of course death knew about that. The hat was pretty disgruntled to place him anywhere but slytherin.
“It's time, I really can’t say much else, have a good life this time around won't you?”
When Harry woke next, he was in an excruciating amount of pain with a phoenix crying over him.
Fuck
That really happened then.
He was bone tired. Which was expected. It’s only been a few hours since he’d died twice and then nearly died a third time.
The basilisk was right next to him, the sword of gryffindor in his hand, the fang piercing the diary next to him.
Ginny was unconscious a little ways away.
He stood up. Nearly fell over but he ended up leaning on the sword as a support.
His legs trembled and fawkes gave him a reassuring coo.
He tossed the diary behind the dead snake, no way was he going to give it to Dumbledore this time around. He find time to come back for it later. Not like anybody else could come down here anyways.
Ginny was slowly waking up. He grimaced before schooling his face.
She was just a kid right now, even then who knows how much she actually knew by the end. He winced. Who knew how much of his thoughts were his own.
From now on any thoughts even seemingly neutral would be put under scrutiny.
Ginny now awake flung herself at him and nearly sent him toppling over. Sobbing and blubbering into his shoulder.
“Harry!!- the diary! I didn’t mean to! I hurt my leg- and Tom!” Harry reluctantly put his arm on her back before cutting her off.
“Ginny- lets get out of here. Ron should be clearing a path.” Ginny didn’t stop crying or making excuses. But he couldn’t be bothered to pay much attention, he was busy trying to figure out how to lie to dumblefuck.
Like hell was he going to let the old coot read his mind, which he now realized was what happened last time. He’d have to avoid eye contact, maybe pretending he’s about to fall asleep? He’d say the diary melted or turned to ash. Ginny and him limped along the dirty corridor. Ron was there and he’d made a hole just big enough to crawl through. Lockhart was there too. He was obliviated though, so he wasnt much help.
Fawkes lifted them out like last time.
Myrtle was nowhere to be seen in the bathroom. Harry was running on fumes, the falling asleep bit wouldn’t be a lie.
The walk to the headmasters office was filled with Ron trying to push the details out of him and Ginny’s quiet sniffles and clinginess. Harry was having a hell of a time trying to think clearly, he wasn’t sure if it was the potions and curses of if he actually had a concussion.
The gargoyle jumped aside when Ron said the password. Harry claiming he forgot it, which he did, it had been over three years ago. The Weasleys and lord Malfoy were there and there was Dumbledore twinkling like nothing else seated behind his desk.
“Harry, my dear boy, what has happened?” Harry nearly sneered, he kept a straight face through sheer force of will.
“Headmaster, we just rescued Ginny from the chamber of secrets!” Ron exclaimed as he and Ginny rushed over to their mother.
“I think an explaination is in order.” Lord Malfoy growled.
“Dumbledore, is suspended from hogwarts and why is professor Lockhart here?”
Harry glanced at the man in question.
“Lockhart tried to obliviate me and Ron, but since he tried to use Ron’s broken wand he ended up obliviating himself. We should probably send him to the hospital.” Harry provided. The adults looked extremely off put by this news. Except Dumbledore, he just kept twinkling.
“Certainly my boy. I believe Miss Ginny Weasley is in need of medical attention as well. If the Weasley family might escort them to the hospital wing?” Dumbledore suggested.
“Right headmaster. We’ll be off.” And with that Molly hustled them all away. Leaving only Harry, Lord Malfoy and Dumbledore in the room, Harry couldn’t remember it happening exactly like this, he could only assume that they had taken a bit more time in getting to the headmasters office than last time.
“Harry my boy, care for a lemondrop?” Harry shook his head. He looked at his feet only just noticing that the sword was still in his hand and that he was covered in blood.
Harry took a seat, while lord Malfoy remained standing. Scrutinizing.
“If you could enlighten us as to recent events my boy?” Harry was getting sick of the ‘my boys’. He closed his eyes and started explaining everything from the beginning. He included Dobby and the diary this time only leaving out the poly juice potion and Aragog. He even managed to include Hagrids innocence, claiming Tom Riddle confessed to Myrtles murder. It was probably useless but maybe they would reopen the case.
“And where is this diary now?” Lord Malfoy asked. Harry looked at him.
“When I ripped out the Baslisk fang of my arm, I stabbed the diary with it, it screamed and bled ink and then it turned to ash.” Dumbledore twinkled harder. Harry was beginning to think that it was sort of an anxious tick, like tapping your foot or finger, only Dumbledore twinkled.
“Thank you my boy. I can see youre terribly tired. I do believe that is all we need from you for now. Might I add that you behaved as a true gryffindor today, after all the sword only comes to a true gryffindor in need.” Harry refrained from rolling his eyes as Lord Malfoy did not. Harry turned to the lord.
“Do you know whose elf Dobby is? I really hope hell stop trying to kill me, the bludgers alone were enough besides the rest of it.” Malfoy’s face gave nothing away. It was the most impressive poker face Harry had seen since Snape had lied straight to the face of Voldemort.
“I can look into it, however I do believe that you need to be seen by a medical professional Baslisk venom is one of the most corrosive substances in the entire wixen world, you would do well to be examined.” Harry leaned the sword up against the desk.
“Yes sir. Goodbye.” Harry fled to the Hospital wing then, even though he wanted nothing more than to fall into bed and not wake up for a week.
Madam Pomfrey looked him over and demanded he stay in the hospital wing for observation. He agreed with little pressure. He still had a week and a half of school left anyway.
Harry woke up again. He was in his dorm room. He was confused for the briefest moment. Then he staggered to his feet.
“Harry, you’re awake! Are you okay?” That was Neville, except he looked like a chubby twelve year old.
“Neville? I’m fine, just sleeping off the basilisk venom. Do you know how I got here? I was in the infirmary last I checked?”
“Basil- Yeah an elf dropped you off a while ago, you’ve been sleeping for a whole day and night. Are you coming down to breakfast?” Harry grimaced. No doubt Dumbledores doing, probably didn’t want to explain why the boy who lived was in the hospital wing to anyone.
“Actually, can you give me an hour or so, I don’t feel like fielding Ron’s questions and then Hermione when she becomes unpetrified or really anything to do with the rest of the school until after I’ve had a bath.”
Neville blinked. Gobsmacked Harry didn’t want to talk to Ron? Did they have a fight?
“Of course Harry. I’ll keep people away for a while. Just try to make it to breakfast. Or if you miss it I’ll snag something for you to eat before class.”
Harry gave a relieved grin.
“Thanks Nev- you're the best. Let’s walk together later?” Harry ducked away making his way to the bathroom, missing Neville’s worried face morph into surprise.
“Sure Harry. Talk later.” Harry gave him a backwards wave as he walked across the hall, avoiding people.
Harry took his time with the bath. He knew he’d have to face everyone eventually, but putting if off for a few more minutes wouldn’t make him any more prepared. He used a wand less drying spell. He had gotten pretty good at wandless magic while on the run, maybe he should be a bit more careful with it though. It wouldn’t do any good for people to see him doing wandless magic as a second year.
He made his way to the mess hall.
He had been ignoring the Ron problem for most of the time he had been back, playing off his recent trauma with the basilisk. But now he needed to be his friend again at least for a little while until he got his feet under him.
Easier said than done given he was facing off against his murderer.
Breakfast was nearly over and true to his word Neville had saved him a plate. He really hoped that Neville wasn’t in on the conspiracy. He thought he genuinely liked Neville. And not like Ron, where the more he thought about him the more he realized that Ron was a terrible friend and kept coasting on his fame and getting jealous over stupid things.
“Thanks Neville.” Harry said as he accepted the plate of food.
“No problem Harry, Dumbledore made an announcement at the start of breakfast, not everyone was here, but most people were. He said you killed a basilisk and saved Ginny from an dark wizards artifact. And that professor Lockhart resigned.” Neville filled him in while Ron was shoveling sausages into his mouth.
“Well I’m pretty sure Lockhart didn’t resign, he actually attacked me and Ron and got obliviated, so who knows what’s up with that, I thought he’d either get arrested or sent to a hospital.” Neville and everyone in hearing distance looked stunned and started to whisper to each other. Of course the rumor mill was alive and well at hogwarts.
“Another professed tried to kill you?And about the basilisk?And Ginny?” Neville managed. On right he had told Neville on a whim back then about the night with the stone.
“Ah, that part was true, I think Ginny was possessed or something, she had this evil diary that bled and turned to ash, it was creepy. I hope she’s fine.” Harry said skillfully ignoring the basilisk comment.
“Harry, you didn’t mention the part where you killed a bloody basilisk!” Ron shouted. Ah what a timely point to include that bit of information. Not that Harry would ever talk about that or where and how to enter the chamber of secrets. He'll keep that close to the vest thanks. Basilisks were worth a lot of money you know.
“Thanks Ron. I forgot about that.” He deadpanned. It went over Rons head as he smiled at him, but Neville was even more shocked that he was before.
Did Harry and Ron have a falling out? Neville didn’t know what to think but decided to withhold judgement, Harry probably had a good reason for being annoyed at Ron.
Breakfast went rather smoothly after that, with Harry shoveling what he could into his mouth before darting off the classes.
He only had to make it through the week and then he’d be able to visit the goblins.
He should box up the Basilisk before he left though, and put it under a preserving charm. How did one break down a Basilisk anyway?
Hermione was de-petrified and was extremely put out at having to skip the exams, but conceded to take them at a later date after she had time to study more.
Harry only ran into Draco once and he was beyond confused when they both stared at each other from the ends of the hall. Something weird was going on, Draco didn’t even call out a derogatory remark.
“Dr- Malfoy?” Harry asked.
“Potter? What the bloody hell is going on here? I know you know something, this has your luck written all over it. Why am I twelve years old when I decidedly remember dying not even two days ago?!”
Bloody hell, death didn’t mention any of this happening. Harry grabbed his arm.
“If you really want to know, meet me in the come and go room tomorrow at midnight, it’s not the sort of conversation that you have just anywhere. Be careful who you talk to as well, the walls have ears.” Draco schooled his face to neutrality.
“I’ll see you then, you better have answers to my questions.” Draco brushed past him and Harry leaned against the wall blowing out a long breath.
So Draco had somehow died and followed him to the past.
Harry wasn’t as surprised as he should be. This seemed like exactly the sort of thing that was likely to happen to him.
Bloody potter luck.