The Prologue
Harry always knew he was destined to die young. He knew that even before he knew that Wix tended to live centuries longer than no-mag's (and wasn't that just a kick to the teeth? To learn that he knew nothing about a world he died for, on multiple occasions. Wix. Wixen. No-mag's. Heirs. Lords. Yule. Samhain. Imbolc. Deities. The Sacred 28.)
(severus. severus. severus.)
(tom. tom. tom.)
Focus.
As he was saying. He always knew he would die young. With a life lived like his, nothing else could have happened. His life was never his own. It was forfeit from before his birth. All because of a stupid prophecy, a self-fulfilling prophecy. And a meddling coot who thought he knew best. Let's not forget an insane dark lord who once had good ideas but lost his head, his heart and his soul all on an idiotic quest for immortality.
Once upon a time, Harry might have thought necromancy was the worst type of magic to exist. It turned out he was wrong on most accounts when it came to the magickal world. Not that he could be blamed, you give a starving child food and watch him glut himself on the feast. And oh how starved Harry was; for food, for touch, for praise, for affection, for love. He was told he had magick and a place in the this strange new world. Safety. Acceptance. He was lied to, manipulated, he was a chess piece on a board played only by one.
Oh, he doesn't doubt that Dumbledore did what he did for the safety of their world. He didn't doubt that Albus had weighed the life of one for the life of many and come up aces. Just because he understood didn't mean he had to like it. Didn't mean that if he had been in Dumbledore's place he wouldn't have tried to find a way, any way. Unlike Albus, he didn't believe children were simply colateral damage. Because that's what Harry had been, colateral damage for the greater good.
But not anymore. Not ever again. Because the one thing Albus didn't account for, was Harry becoming Master of Death. He didn't account for Harry learning all he learned between his death in the forest by Voldemort's hand and his death by his wife's hand 13 years later.
(Ginerva motherfucking Weasley.)
He didn't account for Harry learning about Ariana Dumbledore. Gellert Grindelwald. Harry's own Lordships and Heirships. Wixen Politics. The Holidays of Old. His seats on the Wizengamot. Wixen Etiquette. Classes lost to time as Albus was Headmaster. (Spell Crafting. Government & Economics. Latin. Alchemy. Mind Magicks. Wixen Culture.) Creature Rights. (Werewolves. Vampires. Hags.) His accounts at Gringott's (as if the Dursley's deserved an ounce of the money they got for keeping him locked in a cupboard and using him like a house elf.) The Deathly Hallows. What it truly meant to be Master of Death. He didn't account for Harry learning about Tom Riddle left in an orphanage during WW2, where he was believed to be possessed by the devil. Severus Snape in a house with Tobias Snape, a man who hurt Severus, who abused him for his magic and a mother who could not (would not) leave her husband.
He did not account for Harry's will to live, for his vindictive streak. For Harry had greeted Death like an old friend, but instead of darkness and peace, Harry had been given opportunity. A Second Chance.
And if Harry was getting a second chance. He was dragging Severus and Tom with him. Whether they liked it or not. Albus may believe Tom irredeemable, and Severus a pawn in his game, but Harry didn't.
No. He did not.