Hi everyone, and welcome to this fanfiction.

As the prologue is setting the context, I won't go in any details here. Just be aware that this story is canon-based, and that it's a Voldemort / Hermione with an important part also dedicated to Harry, Ron and Ginny.

For those who had read my previous story, this one is more on the adventure / humor side, and not so much on the angsty one as was "A Journey To Hell".

I'll probably be posting each week on Thursdays.

Please note that English is not my mother tongue, so there can be some mistakes I apologize for. I would gladly correct them if you point them out.

For information this story also exists in French under the name "De Charybde en Scylla" on the Perhentian account, where you can also find my favourite stories and among them a lot of LV/HG or LV/HP that have inspired me.

Of course, Harry Potter is J. K. Rowling's property, and only the story is mine.

I hope you will enjoy this fanfiction, and I would like to thank in advance the readers who will be kind enough to leave a review.

Have a nice day,

Perhentian

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Prologue - October 31st 2040

There was no doubt for Harry that Halloween, or Samhain as it was called by the most conceited wizards, was a bad day.

First the death of his parents, the starting point of a decade of misery with the Dursley. Then the troll his first year at Hogwarts, although it allowed him to start this wonderful friendship with Ron and Hermione. Then, there had been the re-opening of the Chamber of Secrets his second year, and this event was clearly not a good one. Wait… it still led to the destruction of one of Voldemort's Horcruxes now that he was thinking about it.

Then, the year after, Sirius Black had attacked the Fat Lady's portrait on Halloween's night. And if Harry now knew that he had not been the target of the Azkaban escapee, he had still been quite scared the day it had happened. The next year, he had been nominated as the fourth champion of that damned Triwizard Tournament, leading straight to the death of Cedric Diggory and Voldemort's resurrection. That one had definitely not been a good Halloween night. Nothing positive at all about it.

And his bad luck had not ended with the fall of Voldemort, of course not. Ginny had been seriously injured during a Quidditch match on the thirty-first of October 2004 when she had just started back after her maternity leave for James. She had definitely stopped soon after that, although it was probably more to prepare for Albus' birth than because of this accident.

It was also on Halloween that he had learned several years later that Draco Malfoy had been appointed as the magical ambassador for Britain at the International Confederation of Wizards. True, at that time he had had a quite cordial relationship with the Slytherin, but it still was a proof that Halloween had never been a good day for him.

And this Halloween night, on the thirty-first of October 2040 was far worse than anything he had ever experienced before. It was not only his life that was in danger but also those of his family, his friends, his acquaintances. For several years now, the wizarding population had been fighting desperately against the annihilation of their world. And it seemed that today was the last day of their existence.

An intense feeling of frustration overwhelmed Harry. They had seen the signs of this catastrophe far too late to counter it effectively. And even when the Ministry Unspeakables had finally confirmed that the threat was serious, it had taken months for the various magical governments to react appropriately and to cooperate. And a few more months had been needed for their cooperation to be effective.

But even so, there were not enough wizards left to try to counter the catastrophe. Between Grindelwald who had decimated part of eastern Europe, and Voldemort who had done the same in the United Kingdom, the European wizarding population was still struggling to recover. And as a magical war had also broken out between Japan, China and the United States around the years two thousand and thirty, it was not better in the other parts of the world. And hence, the four most powerful magical regions were far less populated than they should have been.

Representatives of all the countries had arrived a few days ago in Wales to attempt to confine the magical source that threatened to destroy their world. More people than Harry had hoped for, but it was obviously still not enough. Around him, most of wizards were already dead, swept away by the source's raw power. As for the team of experts who had been designated to seal the source, it had been completely decimated a few minutes earlier.

Harry had done everything he could to protect them, leading the international team of aurors deployed on site. He had trained these aurors for months, rehearsing as much as possible all the tactics to protect the Curse-Breakers and the Unspeakables while they worked. But there was hardly anyone left from the aurors either…

Only Harry's closest friends were still standing, not so far away from Harry, and the situation was too dire to try to set up any coordination between them. They were not even trying anymore to seal the source, only casting spells to protect their lives.

"Harry!"

Harry noticed a huge rock flying towards him and immediately cast a spell reducing it to dust. Around him chaos was raging. He could hardly see Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna who were also doing their best a few meters from him. Even today they were just as close friends as forty-two years ago during the Battle of Hogwarts, and that was the only thing that was currently warning is heart.

His wife Ginny, still as beautiful as ever, was casting her spells with impressive speed, and Harry took a second to deflect a projectile coming towards her. The magical hurricane around them was becoming more and more powerful, more and more unstable, and Harry's anger intensified. He knew that his children were also fighting on one of the other sides. His children, his nephews and nieces, his other friends, his in-laws, and all his acquaintances. If they were not already dead, corpses among all the corpses strewing the ground around him. The pain that engulfed Harry at this thought made him grip his holly wand tighter.

He needed to stay focussed and fight until the very end. He had not fought so hard against Voldemort to let the world he had built be destroyed by a stupid magical eruption, never mind what were the technical names Hermione kept giving the phenomenon to try to categorize it. It was too unfair. He needed to find a way to stop this.

"We are losing!" he heard Hermione scream.

"Shut up and make us win!" Ron replied.

Hermione did not even glare at Ron, which was a clear indication about how serious the situation was. It had taken twenty years of marriage, two children, and fifteen years of divorce to make Ron no longer feel diminished by Hermione's intelligence, and to make Hermione finally take Ron's remarks with humour. But now it was unfortunately not humour, and Harry saw his friend increase her efforts to stop the source.

However, if Hermione had said that they were losing, it was probably true. After all, she was the one who had lead all the researches about the magical source, pushing as far as possible the known limits of magic. She had granted the magical world more time than they should have had in the beginning, but still not enough it seemed.

"Harry, Ron, get closer," Ginny asked.

Her flaming red hair seemed to be dancing all around her.

"We cannot give up on Neville and Luna," Harry retorted, not moving one bit.

They were distributed uniformly across the magical source to try to contain its power, and if he moved he would endanger his other friends. And Harry refused to give up on anyone. He glanced anxiously to his left, where Neville and Luna were. There seemed to be a lot of magical perturbations around them, and they were visibly struggling to hold their ground. Harry joined his shield to theirs to lend them a hand.

"Watch out!" Ron shouted.

A huge crack appeared on the impressive shied they had put in place around the magical source, and it suddenly collapsed just to Harry's left. Harry avoided the collision by dodging to the right side, and found himself de facto closer to Ginny, Ron and Hermione.

Then he heard Ginny heartbroken scream. Harry darted his gaze to the place of the disaster, hoping to see Neville get up with his usual quiet confidence, and Luna reappear in an airy movement.

But they did not, and Harry felt his heart shatter in pieces. Not Neville and Luna. They had survived the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. They had survived the Battle of Hogwarts. They both had kids, even grandchildren for Neville. They could not die now, killed by a stupid magical source, without him being able to do anything.

Harry tensed with fury. The last time he had felt so helpless, it had been when he had faced Voldemort, and he had hoped that sensation would be behind him forever. He had wanted everyone to live long and peaceful lives. That was what had motivated his Auror career each day of his adult life.

"Expulso!" he cast on a debris flying towards them.

"Confringo!" added Ron beside him.

Harry heard Hermione and Ginny mutually chant a spell in what seemed to be ancient Greek. Voldemort had ruined part of his Hogwart's years, and he had then been so taken by his auror job that he had never really had the time to take a look at advanced charms. He regretted of course not to be able to help Hermione and Ginny, but right now he could not change a thing about it. So with Ron they just focussed on protecting their friends while they were trying to consolidate the shield around the source.

He could barely follow their wand movements, and after a while even Ginny gave up, leaving Hermione alone, and the redhead ended-up joining Harry and Ron to protect Hermione. But Hermione was struggling. Harry noticed the sweat on his friend's face, the rigidity of her posture, her extreme concentration. Harry was beginning to realize that the enemy they were fighting against was definitely too powerful for them. That their struggle was hopeless.

Despite all Hermione's efforts, more and more magical explosions occurred around them, and Harry, Ron and Ginny began to struggle to defend the group. Ginny's left shoulder was left bleeding a few moments later. Afterwards it was Ron who cursed loudly after an impact on his knee. They were still casting spells as fast as they could, but it was not enough.

Then, a rock hit Hermione, and the witch was thrown to the ground, losing for a moment the grip she had on her spell. The power oozing from the magical source seemed to quiver with excitement as if it was alive, and an impressive roar was heard. The trees around them were torn from the ground, dozens of lightning bolts hit the ground, and a Fiendfyre burned the grass all around the magical source. But Hermione managed to start casting her spells again, and the various phenomena calmed down slightly.

But it was a short relief, as soon there was a new explosion, sending debris right in their direction. Harry extended his shield to cover Ginny, who was holding another shield against the Fiendfyre all around them. He noticed the lightning bolt too late. He knew then with a strange lucidity that he would not be able to avoid it, that it would be his end, that he was going to die. He had barely had the time to think with grief that he would abandon his friends and family at the worst possible moment before closing instinctively his eyes.

And to reopen them a few seconds later, not understanding why he had not felt any pain. The lightning bolt was a few inches from his face, completely frozen, and Harry blinked stupidly, before regaining his senses and removing himself from its trajectory, his wand pointed in front of him. But what he found around him was even more disturbing. Everything was frozen. He could see Ginny, Ron and Hermione immobilized in action. Debris hanging in the open air. And even a purple haze coming out of the Hermione's wand.

Turning on himself, he scanned his surroundings, looking for what could be the source of this strange situation. He turned several times before suddenly being faced with a young woman dressed all in black, long black hair cascading over her shoulders, who was looking at him with a pinched expression. Only his many years as an auror prevented Harry from jumping at her sudden appearance.

"Stupefy," he cast.

But nothing came out of his wand and the expression of the young woman became even more pinched.

"Harry Potter," she said in a voice that sounded oddly unnatural .

"This place is dangerous madam, please leave immediately," Harry answered, slightly unnerved.

The young woman did not move and Harry frowned. He clearly had more urgent things to do than to chat with a stranger. His friends were dying. Everyone was dying. He glanced anxiously at the magical source, but even the source seemed to have frozen. His grip on his wand strengthened. If the young woman was linked to this froze, she must be incredibly powerful. And he still had no idea what she was doing there. He was going to ask her to leave again when she spoke.

"I came to grant you your wish, as obligated by my three hallows, before sending you back among the livings," the young woman answered, her tone slightly trailing.

Harry looked at her as if she was insane.

"Your three hallows?" he asked, dumbfounded.

She just nodded curtly and Harry raised his eyebrows.

"Wait, the Deathly Hallows? You're Death?"

He was perplexed. He knew that one should not trust appearances, but was not Death supposed to be a sort of imposing skeleton holding a scythe? Or any other terrifying appearance? Death burst into a strange laughter that made him shiver.

"I can if you wish," she said simply .

The next moment an immense skeleton was hovering before him, dressed in a cloak similar to the one of the Dementors, and holding a scythe which looked particularly sharp. Even the air around seemed to have suddenly gotten colder.

"But I'd rather use this appearance," she said, turning again to a young woman. "At least this way no one screams when I appear. Although this doesn't change anything to their fate."

Harry cleared his throat, not really knowing what to say for a moment. The whole situation felt surreal, as if he had been drugged and was hallucinating. The Deathly Hallows were powerful artefacts, Harry could not deny it, but he had never thought they were really coming from Death itself. It was supposed to be a legend, a mere children story, nothing more.

"I don't have the hallows anymore," Harry finally answered.

Truth be told he was at a loss about what to say, still not understanding how everything could be linked. Of the three hallows, he had put the Elder Wand back in Dumbledore's grave, left the Resurrection Stone in the Forbidden Forest, and given the Invisibility Cloak to his son James.

"It's not important. Since the exact moment you have possessed the three of them, you've been the Master of Death."

Death had pronounced the word master quite disdainfully, but Harry ignored it, trying to understand the ins and outs of that Master of Death thing. He also wondered briefly why Death seemed in such a brittle mood, before remembering that according to the tale of the three brothers the Deathly Hallows had been somehow extorted from Death.

"So what do you wish for?" Death asked again. "I cannot afford to waste too much time today."

She gestured to the mess all around them and Harry shivered. It was obvious that this was the end, that they had lost. He tried to think of the best possible wish, regretting that he could not ask his friends for help. Hermione would have been able to tell him how powerful Death exactly was, and what could be done. Ron could have helped greatly with his tactician mind always analysing all the possible scenarios. Ginny would have been the sneaky one, taking advantage of everything. But none of them was with him, and Harry could only improvise…

"I wish for this disaster not to happen," he said.

"Ah, nope," Death answered almost joyfully. "Not possible, it's against the rules. The wish must concern you. Incredible wealth, immortality, et cetera."

Incredible wealth was ridiculous. And immortality had no appeal for Harry. He had never really wanted it, and his life would not have any sense if he would be left to leave it alone.

"You won't be alone you know. This catastrophe, like all the others, will not destroy the entire population. In hundreds of years, a new society will rise again. It's not so bad."

It was the first time Death had taken an almost friendly tone to speak to him, but that did not change the situation. All that mattered to Harry would be destroyed today. And never to be able to die? It seemed to him quite unhealthy in fact. Not natural. It was something Voldemort had pursued all his life and that had only lead him to madness, and even his own death.

"I don't want to be immortal," Harry said slowly.

Death glare was quite telling, but Harry needed some time to think. He glanced at Hermione, exhausted but still struggling with a stubbornness worthy of the lioness she was. Then his gaze wandered to Ron, his closest friend in the best and the worst moments, and next to Ginny, the woman who had made him happy beyond all his hopes. All soon victims of this catastrophe that they had not been able to stop in time.

And finally he had his wish.

"Would it be possible to go back in time?" he asked.

They could change things. Have more time to think.

"No further than the moment you acquired the first of my hallows," Death answered in an even tone.

Christmas 1991. The moment Dumbledore had offered him the Invisibility Cloak. He would be able to prevent the second war against Voldemort and the death of too much people. And he would be able to better prepare for this stupid catastrophe which would arrive decades later.

"That's not supposed to be so complicated Harry Potter," Death said impatiently.

Harry glared at her. Of course it was simple for her. Few more or few less mortals would not change anything for Death…

"Why are you in such hurry? You have frozen everything around us, including time," Harry pointed out.

"I'd rather not spend too much of my time with you."

Her look was a dead giveaway that she loathed the idea of him having collected her three hallows. Or perhaps she simply hated all human beings.

"Will I keep my memories if I go back in time?" he asked as a precaution.

The three brothers tale had taught him that Death's gifts were usually more a curse than a blessing.

"Yes. And now tell me your wish."

Her face was less and less welcoming - if it had ever been so before - and Harry noticed that being the Master of Death was visibly not a good way to have Death at his beck and call.

"Your. Wish."

This time the air seemed to crystalized all around them and the temperature dropped suddenly far below zero. Harry braced himself.

"My wish is to go back in time, when I acquired the first of your Hallows, w…"

"Granted," Death validated with boredom .

"...ith them!" Harry finished, pointing at his friends.

Death face morphed into a scandalized expression, probably shocked by what was an infringement of the rules, but the next moment everything seemed to melt around Harry, including Death.

Harry had barely the time to think that if his plan really worked, Hermione would kill him with her bare hands, before finally losing consciousness.

oOoOoOo

AN: Next chapter will be posted in one week.