0 - The Weird White Place
The only thing he can see when he wakes up is white, pure white, as in EXTREMELY pure white, wich honestly makes him freak out, because 1-everything looks so sharp and he's not wearing glasses so unless this is a dream inside of a dream his eyes has just been fixed and how can that be if he's supposed to be dead?! 2- he's aware that he should be dead by now so unless this is a weird sort of fever dream —agonizing dream? deathly dream?? God why is his life like this— he's either in heaven or in hell.
He really hopes that if that's the case he's in heaven because if he goes to hell after the joke that was his life he's gonna try to do something drastic, and no, he doesn't care that he know nothing of what he can or can't do, he's the bloody Boy-Who-Lived.
(Can he keep using that name? By now he's discarding the dream inside a dream theory wich means he's dead so can he be the Boy-Who-Lived??)
Thinking about doing things, he should probably stand up, he's been lying on what looks like the floor for like 10 minutes. And he's realizing that he is in his birthday suit-Oh nevermind, clothes just appeared from nowhere, handy thing that.
He stands in a place that seems to be pure white (seriously, that sort of not changing color is unerving, what's wrong with this place!?) while also having no discernible edges, so he decides to explore to see if there's an end. Harry walks for some minutes and then he hears muffled cries, his curiosity and the Saving-People-Thing that Hermione likes to go on rants about takes the best of him and he walks towards the sound.
(what is that supposed to be-BLOODY HELL IS THAT A BABY?!)
The baby (?) keeps crying, and while Harry hasn't felt cold in the time he's been in the Weird White Place (he's officially named it) he doesn't think it's okay that the baby is entirely naked, they don't even have a blanket for fucks sake, who leaves a baby like that? So he tries to do the same thing he did when he wanted to be dressed and to his astonishment it works and now the baby is dressed in one of those baby suits that are just one piece of clothing with the form of a spandex (he doesn't know what that thing are called and probably never will know). The spandex-like thing is Gryffindor-Red colored and the baby is still crying. Now that he thinks of it he probably should pick them up.
As he tries to do so, a hand in his shoulder stops him, almost giving him a heart atack. Before he can get lost questioning if he can have a heart atack if he's already dead, the hand in his shoulder squeeze lightly and he turns to see who else is in the Weird White Place, and then does a double take.
Albus TooManyNames Dumbledore is looking at him with tinkling eyes.
Harry doesn't know how to feel, so he decides to not feel anything (surprisingly, that does not work, or maybe not surprisingly, seeing as it didn't work when he was alive). While he was trying to not feel anything the Ex-Headmaster started talking. He probably should pay more attention to what Dumbledore is saying but he's feeling too contradictory things at once so forgive him if he's not at his best.
Harry hears that the baby was really Tom Riddle (he can't call a baby Voldemort no matter how disfigured the baby looks), or more like Tom's Horcrux. He tunes out even more when Dumbledore starts telling him a tale about the hallows and how Harry is supposedly The Master Of Death now. Harry starts paying attention when Dumbledore says that he is dead, or something like that. It's unerving but it's nice to hear that he was right about something.
(Take that Hermione)
The Weird White Place is a limbo apparently, and as he looks around again it looks like King Cross. Baby-Horcrux is still crying and the Ex-Headmaster is still talking.
So Harry can go back to being alive. He's honestly not at all relieved at hearing that, you know? He knows that Bellatrix is dead and he would love to throw a party about that, but some of his friend -some of his family- is also dead.
And yeah, Hermione and Ron are alive, his godson is alive, his -they are Ron's but he loves them so much that they are his too- parents are alive. But what about Moody? What about Fred? Professor Lupin, Tonks, Colin?
What about Sirius? Because honestly, he isn't over his death yet, and the death of the others is something that he hasn't had time to think or mourn between the mess that was the whole war.
Harry is freaking out again, Baby-Horcrux keeps crying like needing to breath is only for lesser people, and the Ex-Headmaster's eyes are twinkling. He just wants time to think.
He acts impulsively, he breathes, he picks up Baby-Horcrux, he turns, and he walks leaving behind a shocked Dumbledore.
Baby-Horcrux is calming down, or so he wishes, and he keeps walking. Harry just wants to leave an so he goes into the brick wall, and then he isn't in King Cross anymore. He is in a twisted version of the park near his relatives house, as if this whole experience wasn't being unerving enough.
He sits down on one bench, trying to not upset Baby-Horcrux more, and he thinks. He thinks hard. By the appearance of the Ex-Headmaster he supposes that dead people can appear in the Weird White Place, why Dumbledore of all people appeared to talk to him is lost to Harry but okay, so Harry thinks that if he tries enough maybe other people can appear.
He shuts that line of thought quickly. He's not ready to talk to his dad and mom right now, not after all the things that happened in the span of time between summoning them in the forest and him waking up in the Weird White Place.
So he keeps thinking, and, isn't he the Master Of Death? Is Death an entity or just something that is simply always there like air? Can he talk to Death?
"Why, hello little Master"
Harry almost falls from the bench, Baby-Horcrux is silent as a little first year in Snape's classroom, and there is something, someone?, in front of him. Harry can't distinguish much more than something pitch black that looks like the cloak of a dementor but somehow more menacing, it doesn't seem to have a distinct edge and trying to find one will probably get him a headache. Harry doesn't realize that he's staring and that he hasn't responded to who he supposes is Death. Harry is an idiot and Death is as amused as an ethereal entity can be.
Harry finally got a grip of himself and stammers something that could be a "hello" if you try hard enough to hear it. So much for Gryffindor bravery. Thinking about being a gryffindor gives him some confidence and so he tries to ask Death about things. Turns out that yes, he's actually dead but no he's not entirely dead and Death think the word Limbo works to describe the Weird White Place(why does Death sounds like they're chuckling while they're saying that?!). Harry asks Death about all the "going back" thing and Death's explanation is, not surprisingly, more helpful than Dumbledore's.
If only slightly better, because Harry thinks that Death wants to laugh at him and it shows. Not that he can't blame Death, he's aware that his life was a circus.
So yes, he can go back to living or he can move On, wich he takes to mean to be entirely dead. But did Death said something about being capable of taking him even through time?
"Yes, Master" They sound exasperated and Harry's sure that he didn't ask that aloud, but well, he's not going to complain to more answers.
In the middle of the conversation Baby-Horcrux starts wailing again but in a lower manner. Harry takes to hush him and he asks himself if he just adopted a horcrux.
Death sees him making puppie eyes, does something resembling a sigh, and tells Harry that if he wants to go back to a time when he still had the horcrux in his scar, Death can take it out and merge it with another existing one. Harry starts assimilating that he really can go back to a time in wich Sirius is still alive and now he can go back and live without seeing Voldie's dreams? Totally awesome, the almost-heartattacks were worth it.
He thinks he's gonna miss Baby-Horcrux, but he tells Death to take him back.
And that's how he's back in the cupboard. The Dursley's cupboard.