MC4A - Paranormal Phantasm

Fill #7

Representations: Harry Potter; Death; Immortality

Bonus Challenges: Casper's House; Tied & Died; Second Verse (Rock of Ages)

Word count: 1,242

Beta: Aya Diefair

Harry would never admit it but he was vaguely glad that he had gathered the three Hallows that had made him the Master of Death. Sure, he had to watch his friends and family die, but he also got to see the Dursleys and all those who had decided to cause him pain also die. Rita Skeeter was an interesting one, she grew old and wrinkly before being killed by someone she had written in a bad light.

Now, many might think that this is not the Harry Potter they know. Harry Potter is the Golden Boy, the purest Gryffindor to ever walk the planet. He was the Wizarding World's Saviour, he couldn't be happy about seeing everyone die around him. And yes, this was true once, but people change over the years and Harry had changed.

It had started when Ginny had broken up with him. Or, more accurately, when Ginny had gone and gotten impregnated by Dean Thomas without Harry's knowledge and he had cast her out of his house before proceeding to mope around said house for the next few weeks. Hermione and Ron were at the door a lot but he never let them in.

It rather reminded him of his Potions Professor and his love for Harry's mother. Except they hadn't been almost married and then Lily had decided to have James' baby. Or at least, as far as Harry was aware. He decided that he would take on the visage of his Potions Professor. Be cold to the world and it can never hurt you. Conceal, don't feel and all that. Maybe it would protect him.

So that's what he did, for the next seventy-seven years. He stopped caring about anything and anyone. All he did was sit in his house and paint. He was a terrible painter when he started, but when he had spent ten years practicing, he was pretty good at it. He was probably at Raphael or Van Gogh standard by now. Not that he cared about how good his work was, he just wanted to like what he had made and there were quite a few of his earlier works that he still liked.

And now it was seventy-seven years since he had cast Ginny out of his home and he was ready to go outside again. Of course, he hadn't realised that it had been that long and to see how much the world had changed in a few months—which is what he thought it had been—was a shock. Shrugging the changes away, he made his way to the little house in Ottery St Catchpole that Ron and Hermione lived in, he wouldn't mind seeing Rose and Hugo again, it had been some time after all.

He approached the house and stopped. There was a funeral going on and he didn't really want to disturb it. He didn't know anyone at the funeral anyway, they were all the elder generation that he had never really gotten to know.

Though there were quite a few redheads, so maybe this was a Weasley gathering. Who had died? He didn't know but he figured the Weasleys would let him in. Hopefully he wouldn't have to spend much time with Ginny. When he saw the tomb stone, Harry was shocked. Bill Weasley. Bill was dead? 2083. He had been in his house for over seventy years?

But how could he be so old when he still looked the same? A cold chill came over him and the scene vanished to be replaced by a grey landscape occupied by a floating cape, not unlike a Dementor, except this cape was holding a scythe. "Master, you have come out of hiding at last."

Harry stared at the cape. "Who are you?"

"I am Death and you are my Master," the cape replied. Harry spluttered for a few moments, utterly confused.

"I am not the Master of Death, I threw away the Ring!"

The cape—Death—seemed to shrug. "And the Ring returned to you. You are its Master."

"Alright, fine!" Harry threw up his hands. "What does being the Master of Death entail?"

"Not all that much. You are a shield in case some full-of-themselves wizard or witch decides to try and control me. You are there to keep the balance when I cannot do it on my own. You are there to keep track of things."

"So, I'm basically a secretary."

"Yes."

"How did that translate to Master?"

"I do not know how your kind's minds work but it has and now you are my Master."

"Right." Harry nodded and then asked the question that he needed answered the most. "So, am I immortal now or something? Because it's been over seventy years and I haven't changed."

Death chuckled, "Of course. Death's Master couldn't just up and die, now could he?"

"I s'pose not."

And so, Harry accepted his new position of Master of Death. After talking some with Death, the entity revealed that it could take him to any time and any place for him to act as an observer. He couldn't interfere but he could observe. And he did.

He observed the life and deaths of the Dursleys. He observed the death of Rita Skeeter. He observed the early life of Albus Dumbledore to see how much Rita had gotten correct in her book. He observed the lives Hermione and Ron had had without him. He observed how his godchildren had grown up without him and would die without knowing him. He didn't belong in their world anymore.

Eventually he grew tired of watching events surrounding the people he knew unfold. He went to the timeline of Tom Riddle and watched his old nemesis grow up. He saw the similarities between them and the differences. He watched as Tom Riddle was crafted into Lord Voldemort by the circumstances around him. When Myrtle died, he felt a pull inside of him and realised that Tom had just started his goal of being immortal and thus trying to control Death.

He sighed, grabbed the diary-turned-Horcrux and lessened its protections to make it easier to destroy. He didn't have to do more than that, he would be able to destroy the diary in his second year of Hogwarts with minimal effort now. Of course, it would take some effort to get to the point where destroying the Horcrux was an option thanks to the basilisk that would be trying to kill him, but the actual destroying of the diary would be fairly straightforward.

Harry spent the next few years watching every Horcrux be made and weakening its protections. He would jump forward through the school year when Tom was inactive to the next interesting time. He did his duty as Master of Death and continued watching. When he got bored of trailing after Tom Riddle, he left that timeline for a few months to watch something more interesting.

He saw the Founders of Hogwarts, the building of various Pyramids (and removed a few Horcruxes from them), Leonardo Da Vinci's first invention, the Wright Brother's plane, Shakespeare writing Love's Labour's Won, and so many other points in history that intrigued him. He had all of time to explore and an eternity allowing him to see it all. Sometimes he would return to the time when he had been young, attending Hogwarts with his friends. He would remember the sounds, so different to the silence that now followed him everywhere.