The Master of Death

The night everything changed. The shift in the Balance Between Good and Evil shifted. On this night of July 31 of the year 1980 one Harry Potter was born. He came out as a normal 6lbs 7oz and yet everything about him screamed abnormality. His skin was beyond pale with a sickly sheen despite his obvious health, he came out quietly and didn't shed a tear, instead giving a large huff to expel the fluids from his lungs and throat. His black hair was unusually long and silky for a baby, framing his angelically attractive face. The most prominent feature about him, the feature that drew the most attention, were his brighter than the Avada Kedavra green eyes that stared piercingly, intelligently, and boldly at the gathered adults with a sense of maturity in his stature.

His mother, a beautiful red haired witch with the same, yet much less pronounced, green eyes stared wide-eyed at her husband who, in turn, stared right back at her with his black hair framing his hazel eyes in a less elegant copy of his son. The assembled group of spectators surrounding the astonished and slightly fearful parents all stared, just as gob smacked as them. That is, all except one. The misleadingly fragile looking old man at the bedside of couple stared on with joy twinkling in his blue eyes as he thought of all of the possibilities of this predicament. 'This is the one! I knew James and Lily would be the bearers! It's really to bad about what has to happen now. They were good soldiers and were a great asset to the light. Oh well, it is for the greater good after all.' Dumbledore shook himself of thoughts and leaned closer to Lily from over the bed. "My dears. Congratulations! You have given birth to the defeater of the Dark Lord. You know what this means? You must protect the young one at all costs."

The couple glanced sharply up at the old man. "You don't really think he is the Child of Prophecy do you?" James gasped and clutched Lily and Harry closer to him in fear.

"I am afraid you already know the answer to that question. Look at him and tell me that you don't see the potential he has to defeat Voldemort?"

The couple was silent as they contemplated their child who just gazed back at them looking for all the world as if he understood everything that was going on around him. "No, not my little boy! That is too dangerous. I don't want that for him. I wouldn't be able to stand and watch from the side as he fought the most dangerous Dark Lord of the Century." Lily cried hysterically.

'That is the precise reason that you are not going to have to watch. You will be to busy on your next great adventure to even notice the predicament of your son. It is a mercy really.' He didn't say that of course. They wouldn't have understood. "Worry not, my dear. Your son will be alright. He will be in the hands of the Light and will grow to be strong in our ways and beliefs. For now though we must get him to safety as soon as possible. Young… what is his name?"

"Harry," Lily and James stated together, "Harry James Potter."

"That is a fine name and he will be known throughout the wizarding world." He proclaimed plucking the boy from Lily's unsuspecting arms. Harry, however, wasn't paying him any mind. He was staring into the corner of the room at what seemed to be nothing to everyone else in the room. His gaze shifted downwards steadily as he continued to stare in the corner. Disregarding it as a normal baby's wandering glance the grown-ups turned away. Unknown to them he wasn't looking at just an empty dark corner. Kneeling in the shadows of the room was a figure shrouded in a cloak of darkness and bowing its head in a submissive position while still looking in the baby's eyes. He was holding a scythe in a guard position across his body with his barely visible bony fingers holding tightly to it. The lone figure said only one thing before he disappeared from the room. It seemed to echo around the room and all of the Earth gave recognition by going dark for a split second. Throughout all of the Earth all creatures (dark, light, and neutral) gave a cry of welcome in melodious harmony as Death's scratchy baritone uttered the word, "Master."

(Inside the Gordics Hollow on night of the attack exactly 1 year and 3 months later)

Voldemort sauntered up to the house the Potters were hiding in. His little rat, disgusting man that he was, had finally came through and showed his usefulness. He didn't know how he became secret keeper for the Potters but he thanked whatever unlucky star was over the young Potter that night.

The wards were easy to get through and he didn't set off any alarms by masking the incredible magic within himself so as not to be detected. "Bombarda!" with that one cry the fun began. 'The Potters were good adversaries. Too bad they birthed the brat. I could have changed them over to the dark side.'

His first opponent was James. He'd previously been in the living room doing something. He looked up in surprise and jumped when he saw Voldimort. He whipped out his wand in record time and yet he was still too slow to throw even one curse. The last thing James Potter ever did was yell a warning to his wife, "Lily! He's here take Harry-" and then a sickening thud.

Lily knew that James was dead and that she was next. She ran from her room to the nursery and tried to Portkey him out to a safe place set up for him if this ever happened. She realized that Voldemort must have set up Anti-Portkey and Apparation wards. Her sinking feeling grew and she came to accept the inevitable… until she saw the Dark Lord climbing the stairs towards her. She slammed the door in his face and rushed back to her baby.

The Dark Lord was impressed with the fight that the desperate mother put up. He still acknowledged that if he hadn't promised Severus to spare her she would be dead, but for him trying to bring her down with the least fatal amount of damage possible that will still handicap her, she was doing well. Eventually, he got her to drop her wand and she ended crouched over the cradle. "Not my baby. Please! Why did you have to choose my baby? Don't kill Harry. Please, he is all I have please don't kill my little boy." She wasn't shouting. The words were a whispered truth. She wasn't even looking at him. Harry, unbeknownst to them, had been awake since he'd felt Voldemort walk through the wards and witnessed everything that happened. He was staring at his mother with his unnaturally green eyes and in them she found reassurance and peace. When the end came she heard a faint whispered voice say, "Fear not. For he will be safe in my care." The last thing she saw before she died was Harry illuminated by the green of the Death curse coming towards her and the way the light of death seemed to make him brighter.

Voldemort wasted no time after the death of his once great annoyance. He immediately pointed his wand at the infant and cast the curse while looking it in the eye for the first time. The moment before the curse left his wand he felt a warm feeling rise up from the once thought dead human side of him. Then the curse flew and hit the child. All of the pieces of his soul cried out as one and rushed back into his body from the pain. Voldemort was confused by this turn of events as he struggled with the pain. Then the unimaginable happened. He was still staring in horror, for what reason he knew not, at the crib in front of him so he was able to watch as the curse hit Harry's forehead and seemed to be absorbed into him. Then there was a pause, in all this time Harry was still staring at Voldemort in the face, and the curse came streaking out of Harry's head and straight back at Voldemort and his newly put together soul.

Voldemort's body exploded and his soul was left behind. Next to him stood a man covered in a black cloak. "You will wait here and observe with me," was all the indication Voldemort was given that the man had seen him. He found that he couldn't see move or speak in anyway. His anger and fear rose as he was rendered helpless by the unknown force near him.

He didn't have long to wait for what was to come. What he didn't know was that the moment he was in the middle of was the beginning of a new life for him. One that would show him the beauty of death and the rewards of love and he really didn't expect it to all come from the little boy he had tried to kill.