Talon - Chapter 1 (HP as son of Batman story)

A.N: Hi guys, hope you're all doing well. This is the first chapter of my latest story, 'Talon', the Harry Potter/son of Batman story that you guys had voted for earlier. Originally, I wasn't going to post this until after I had finished writing Bonded. But I have only one chapter left for that I'm already working on, and I have limited time over the next few days, so I decided to just post this chapter. Bonded's final chapter should hopefully come out before the end of the month or sometime early next month, hope you're all looking forward to doing that.

For the record, this chapter is longer than most of the other chapters for this story are going to be as it is basically just a prologue and a summary of events in Harry's previous life, along with an explanation as to how he got in the DC world.

I hope you all enjoy.

(.)

Chapter 1 - Prologue

Harry Potter was a person who had experienced a lot in his life; anyone who knew his story would agree. He had also heard many different opinions about many different topics. The Earth was flat according to some, round according to others. Some credited their entire existence to a single divine creator, while others believed otherwise. One thing that he had heard a few times in his life was that 'death was nothing more than the next great adventure' or some other variation of that.

It irritated him greatly that the person who said that had to be right.

People often heard that their lives flashed before their eyes when they were about to die. He had once heard someone claim that it was because the human brain didn't really understand what was going on with the body and was desperately scouring through all of its memory banks in a final effort to survive whatever it was that was destroying the body. If that was true, then why was his life flashing before his eyes after he had died?

Harry had been fortunate enough to be born as the son of Lily and James Potter, a witch and wizard, both of whom had unfortunately ended up dying far too soon when they had both been attacked on Halloween after his first birthday. The two had been part of a magical civil war, fighting against a man known to his followers and enemies alike as 'He who must not be named' or 'You know who'. They called him this because they were all too scared to say his name. Early during the war, the man had set up a taboo on his name, meaning if anyone spoke it, he or his band of followers, known as Death Eaters, would pop up and make sure you never said anything ever again. It was why you would never hear a common wizard or witch say the name; it's why you would never ever hear the name 'Voldemort'.

His father had bravely sacrificed his life in a vain attempt to delay Voldemort when he had attacked their house, his mother then ended up sacrificing her own life for him. It was then that Voldemort fired the killing curse at baby Harry, a curse that killed any and all that it touched. No exceptions.

Except Harry.

The curse ended up rebounding at Voldemort, destroying his body and leaving Harry with a permanent scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. Harry's future headmaster would end up telling him that his mother's act of love and sacrifice had rebounded the curse and defended him, but he hadn't believed that for long. After all, there must be dozens of witches and wizards willing to sacrifice their lives for their children, right? Yet Harry was the first ever in history to survive? Also, if that had been true, then why hadn't his mother been protected when James Potter had sacrificed his own life for both of them? It would be much later when Harry stumbled upon a diary left by his mother, detailing the extensive magical research that she had been doing. She had made a plan to trap the dark lord if he had ever found them both, and willingly sacrificed herself as part of a plan to power up the trap. It had been a long and complicated process, one that involved setting several runes all around the room and even tattooing several to her own body. Even his lightning bolt scar strongly resembled the 'Sowilo' rune, a rune that signifies a lasting and powerful success.

After the death of his parents, Harry had been taken to live with his relatives, the Dursley family. An abnormal family with an abnormal obsession with being normal. The problem was that they believed themselves to be the pinnacles of perfection and normality, while they believed Harry to be the opposite. His Uncle Vernon was horribly fat, while his Aunt Petunia was worryingly thin. Their son, Dudley, took after his father in the weight department and was spoiled beyond belief. There were very few times Harry truly saw Dudley cry; more often than not, the boy would let out fake cries, and that was only in the very rare instances when his parents didn't do what he wanted when he asked a second time. Dudley got the latest toys, bikes, and whatever else he wanted. So much so that he had a second bedroom to keep all of his toys. Meanwhile, Harry had been 'graciously allowed' to live in the cupboard under the stairs.

Living with the Dursleys was what Harry would describe as challenging if he were in a very generous mood and possibly on drugs. As soon as they had been able to, they had him work and do chores around the house with minimal rest. Harry learnt very quickly to minimise the time he took to do the chores; if he took too long, then he'd be punished. Though if he did them too quickly, then he'd be given more work; it had been a hard job finding a delicate balance on how long he should take, but he did it, more often than not. They never made Dudley do any chores, and Harry quickly learnt better than to complain; complaints earned beatings. So did many things, to be honest. Which was why, after living with them for so many years, he was nothing more than a silent cook and maid.

Until his letter had come.

His uncle had torn the first one and done the same with the next three. The seven letters after that, he had burnt in a fire. But the letters kept coming, so much so that eventually the house was packed with letters that all kept appearing in the house, no matter what measures were taken. Eventually, his uncle had snapped (as you do) and then taken them all far away in a futile attempt to escape from whoever was sending them. A day or so later, the entire Dursley family, plus the unwanted Harry Potter, had ended up in a lighthouse for the night. When the clock had hit midnight, two things had happened. The first being that Harry had officially become eleven, and honestly, sleeping in an old sleeping bag on the floor of a dusty lighthouse wasn't even the worst birthday Harry had had. The second thing was the door to the lighthouse being knocked off its hinges.

In came Hagrid, a large man, larger than any person had the right to be. But he was kind and surprisingly gentle for a person strong enough to bend his uncle's gun with a single hand. A couple of birthday presents later to a confused Harry Potter happened before Hagrid finally started explaining. Hagrid worked at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was sent to find Harry because none of his letters had been answered. Hagrid also dropped the biggest piece of news that Harry had ever heard in his entire life.

"Yer' a wizard, Harry," He had said.

That one sentence had explained so much to him; he was a wizard. That was why the Dursleys had hated him, that was why weird things happened around him, like that time Dudley broke his toothbrush and then Dudley's somehow ended up headfirst into the toilet (as you do when you upset a wizard who believes in good dental practices). Hagrid rescued Harry from the now livid Dursleys, but not before leaving Dudley with a pig's tail (Harry liked Hagrid now) and taking Harry to get his school supplies.

He took Harry to Diagon Alley, a wizarding shopping centre, basically, one that was accessed most commonly by newcomers through the Leaky Cauldron, a pub on Charing Cross Road in London. On the way there, Hagrid had explained many things to Harry. Wizards referred to those without magic as 'muggles'. Many wizards also divided themselves into three categories: pureblood, half-blood and muggle-born. The first being wizards born with two sets of magical grandparents, the second being those who were born from at least one magical parent, and the third and final one was those born to muggles, like Harry's mother had been, meaning that Harry was a half-blood. Voldemort had apparently been trying to get the purebloods in power and wanted to enslave or destroy the rest.

Dickhead.

As they continued shopping, Harry had learnt more about the wizarding world. He learnt stuff like how they dressed, what types of things interested them, how their goblin-run bank worked and so on. Hagrid had left him alone for a bit, leaving Harry to go get his final school item by himself, his wand. The wandmaker had been rather surprised when Harry hadn't ended up getting a particular wand, one that had apparently been the brother wand to Voldemort's wand. Instead, Harry ended up with a slick-looking black wand made out of yew wood (no, he didn't appreciate the wandmaker pointing out that Voldemort's wand was made out of the same wood) and possessed the core of a thunderbird tail feather.

Thunderbirds were large, magical creatures. A large, magical avian beast that was closely related to the phoenix. The Thunderbird could create storms as it flew and was highly sensitive to danger, much like its tailfeathers, which could sense danger and were known to cast curses on their own pre-emptively when supernatural dangers were near. There had been many times when the wand had ended up casting a spell long before Harry had even realised that there was danger. One of Harry's proudest accomplishments had been being able to find a way to mimic the ability himself, giving his magic the ability to sense danger before he could, a trick that had proved valuable many, many times.

After leaving the wand shop, Harry had met up with Hagrid, who had brought him one final birthday gift, an owl, but not just any owl.

Hedwig.

The snowy owl had been his one true friend through everything; there with him for all important aspects of his life. He had fallen in love with her instantly, as did she with him. At times, he often wondered if she was his owl or if he was her human. After a great amount of arguing, he had been able to convince Hagrid that he could go back home himself. But he hadn't, he felt bad about deceiving Hagrid, the man who had just given him what he considered the best present in the world, but there was no way in hell he was going back to the Dursley family. He had spent the rest of the summer living in Diagon Alley, learning as much as he could about the wizarding world and spending his entire time with Hedwig, who seemed irreversibly attached to his shoulder the whole time. She wasn't just a simple pet, not for him; the pair had bonded together, and she had become his familiar, an animal that forms a lifelong attachment to a wizard or witch.

Soon it was time to go to school. On the train ride to Hogwarts, he had ended up becoming friends with a boy named Terry Boot. Terry was quiet, like Harry, but also seemed willing to talk if someone else started, unlike Harry, who had been happy to enjoy the silence of the compartment, at least until they were interrupted. The first time had been by a slightly bossy girl named Hermione, who was looking for a toad. Once she deemed the two boys to be useless for her search, she had left them alone. The two sat in silence for a minute before the door was opened again. It was then that Harry Potter met Draco Malfoy. A pureblood supremacist who was as spoilt as Dudley and thought that everyone who wasn't pureblood wasn't worth the dirt under his shoes. One failed attempt at a civil conversation later, and Harry was left with a boy who considered himself his rival, not knowing that Harry literally wouldn't have minded one bit if he never saw the boy again.

Eventually, they reached Hogwarts, where Harry was sorted into Ravenclaw house along with Terry. Though he was nearly sorted into Slytherin or Gryffindor, neither of them had a bird for a logo, so Harry naturally went for Ravenclaw instead. In Ravenclaw, he quickly ended up becoming friends with the other boys in his dorm, Anthony Goldstein and Michael Corner. The first was a pretty decent bloke for the most part, even if he snored loudly. He was a pretty big Quidditch fan (Quidditch naturally being a game involving flying around in the air and risking life-long brain damage and broken necks) and had hoped to one day go professional. Michael, on the other hand, considered himself to be a bit of a player; he had three different girlfriends throughout his time at Hogwarts and considered that to be one of his greatest achievements.

During the welcoming ceremony, one of the older prefects told Harry about the most important teachers. Professor Sprout was the herbology teacher and head of Hufflepuff house. A generally friendly woman, one that Harry didn't interact with much outside of class, but he found her to be pleasant enough. Professor McGonagall was not only the deputy headmistress, but she also taught transfiguration class and was the head of Gryffindor house. Then there was Professor Flitwick, the head of Ravenclaw house and teacher of charms class. He was considered by most to be the nicest and most friendly teacher, and very rarely would anyone ever see his angry side. Merlin, help those poor souls who did. The man more than lived up to the tales told of him, as his lessons were always engaging and fun, and the man had even been nice enough to tell Harry some stories of his mother.

The final head of house was a loathsome man known as Severus Snape, teacher of potions and head of Slytherin house. Hated by pretty much everyone who was not a Slytherin. It quickly became clear to Harry that the man would not have lasted a day as a teacher in the Muggle world. He was rude, cruel and had on more than one occasion, made a student cry. He'd ignore any and all complaints against his Slytherins while actively targeting the other students. The students he hated the most were Gryffindors and Harry Potter. The man all but frothed at the mouth when he first saw Harry and was happy to find even the smallest reason to punish Harry, including but not limited to sneezing too loudly in class.

It turns out that Snape had gone to school with Harry's parents and hated Harry's father more than anyone else in the world, and decided to take it out on Harry since his father was obviously too dead to continue the grudge. Snape had insulted Harry's father on many, many occasions, calling him everything under the sun. Snape had once claimed that Harry's father had been nothing more than a horrible bully who delighted in tormenting the innocent. Harry, not willing to trust Snape's obviously unbiased recollection of events, did some digging and found out that Snape was equally responsible for all of the confrontations the pair had.

One of the main reasons that Snape hated Harry was that he had been deeply obsessed with Harry's mother. The pair were originally friends until one day she interfered in a confrontation between Snape and Harry's father. Snape thanked her by calling her an insult for Muggleborns, a 'mudblood'. From there, his mother had broken the friendship with Snape, and the next year she got into a relationship with Harry's father. The headmaster could claim all he liked that Snape loved Harry's mother, but Harry knew he didn't. There was a world of difference between love and obsession. Later during his life, Harry would learn that Snape was the one who was responsible for sending Voldemort to the Potter family on Halloween, the man hadn't cared if Lily Potter's son or her husband died, he only defected to the other side of the war because he knew that the dark lord couldn't be trusted to not kill the woman Snape wanted. Snape had stayed with Voldemort for years without a care, only ever switching when what he desired was in danger. Snape wasn't a hero; he was an opportunistic snake.

In the middle of everyone was the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. A man who had been working at Hogwarts since before half of its staff was born. He had always been a talented wizard, far above average. And during the last Wizarding World War, he had fought on the magical side of things and defeated the dark wizard in charge, who was known as Grindelwald, and since then, he had been proclaimed by the masses to be the greatest wizard of all time. Not only was he the headmaster of THE premier magical school of Britain, but he also had two very high government positions as well. As far as the public was concerned, Albus Dumbledore was a Muggle-loving, all-powerful and kind wizard who only wanted the betterment of the wizarding world and could do no wrong.

Harry knew better.

While Dumbledore wasn't all-powerful, he was powerful enough to make a big difference in the world. Yet he never used that power, not to its fullest extent. Dumbledore, for all of his preaching, was happy to maintain the status quo and didn't really want too much change to happen. Over the years, the man had tried to establish a bond with Harry, as a mentor or even like a grandfather figure, but it didn't work, especially after Harry had found out that Dumbledore was the one who placed him with the Dursleys in the first place, even though his parents' wills stated otherwise.

During his first year at school, things went relatively good, he learnt magic and had finally found a friend in Terry Boot. While the pair were friendly with the other two Ravenclaw boys, they were both quieter than the other two and preferred each other's company. Unfortunately, the year started going sour when Harry overheard one of the older Gryffindors discussing what was being hosted in the corridor that the headmaster had forbidden students from entering. They had been telling others that it was a three-headed dog of all things.

During the Halloween feast, Harry had decided not to attend as he hadn't really thought it would be fun to celebrate on the anniversary of his parents' death, so he had spent some time in the library instead before deciding to head back to his dorm. Unfortunately, he somehow ended up stumbling upon a giant troll on the way there. Harry shot the troll in the eye with the first spell he could think of before turning and booking it. As he was running for his life, he realised just where he was and quickly came up with a plan. He managed to hold out long enough, barely, but eventually he got the troll to follow him to the forbidden corridor, where Harry found a room that was suspiciously easy to unlock.

It turns out that the older Gryffindors had been telling the truth; there was a three-headed dog in the corridor, a Cerberus to be exact. A giant dog with three heads, each big enough to swallow Harry whole. If you've never seen a giant three-headed dog fight a troll close up, then you should consider yourself lucky. It was quite gory up close; the right head of the dog ended up missing a tooth, while the left head got scratched across the face. The fight did end up going in Cerberus's favour, though, as it ripped off several chunks of the troll before the middle head managed to rip its head off and eat it. The teachers arrived at that moment, right as Harry was covered in troll blood and in range of a hungry Cerberus.

Later during the year, Harry was nearly killed once more when someone tried to kill him during a Quidditch match, charming one of the balls to try and kill him as he sat in the crowd. He survived, thankfully, though the poor third-year girl sitting behind him suffered greatly when the ball crushed her torso. She really wouldn't have survived without the benefit of magic. Terry had suspected that it was Snape who had sabotaged the game and tried to kill Harry.

Harry had originally suspected Snape as well and wanted to be sure, so he would have proof. Shortly before the year ended, he managed to work out that it hadn't been Snape and instead had been Professor Quirrell, the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor for the year. Harry had tracked and followed him for over a month, learning that Quirrell was after something called the 'philosopher's stone', a magical item created by a world-famous alchemist, one that would grant a person the ability to change things into gold and create the elixir of life, something that was being hidden in the school. Harry kept an eye on Quirrell until one night, he followed him right into the forbidden corridor and into the forbidden room. Harry followed him in and found that the Cerberus was sleeping on the side of the room while a trap door was open on the floor. After a moment of hesitation, Harry went down the trap door. He had considered telling the other teachers, but that didn't seem to be an option. Flitwick was away and visiting family for the night, while Professor McGonagall had outright dismissed his claims when he had told her earlier, Sprout was apparently gathering plants in the Forbidden Forest, and he didn't trust Snape. If the man couldn't wash his own hair and brush his teeth, then Harry certainly wasn't going to trust him with stopping a potential dark wizard. The headmaster wasn't an option either because the all-powerful and wise Albus Dumbledore decided that the headmaster of the school should stay in an office with a password only known to a few, so Harry couldn't reach him since the other teachers weren't there to get him. Besides, according to McGonagall, Dumbledore had already left the castle to attend a meeting.

Making quick work of some devil snare and a couple of other trials, Harry eventually made his way to a room where he had to play a game of wizard's chess with ten-foot-tall chess pieces that would actually kill him if he lost.

Harry promptly decided 'fuck that' and returned to the previous room and took a broom, and flew over the chess pieces and into the other room. A couple of other trials later, Harry started to have his doubts. If he, as a first-year student, albeit an exceptionally talented one, could go through all of these puzzles without too much of a problem, then surely an adult wizard could easily blitz through them, right?

In the final room, Harry ended up confronting Quirrell, where he learnt the man was secretly hosting the spirit of Voldemort in the back of his head. One near-death confrontation later, and Harry ended up burning Quirrell into ashes. When Quirrell-Voldemort had tried to attack him, the protection left by his mother had kept him safe, and Voldemort (plus Quirrell) couldn't touch him. Voldemort's host was burned into nothing, and Voldemort's spirit flew away. Harry had also managed to get the philosopher's stone, something he hid away for himself, deciding that he'd be more responsible with it than the headmaster, who all but announced its existence in front of an entire school full of people.

The next day, Harry ended up talking with Dumbledore and lost a lot of his limited respect for the man. The man revealed that the traps had been created to delay the thief, while the final trap was the one that would stop the thief. Dumbledore stated that only someone who didn't want to use the stone would be able to get it. But that hadn't exactly worked, as Harry hadn't initially wanted the stone; he only decided to keep it after he already had it. Thankfully, Dumbledore didn't seem to suspect him of having the stone and simply believed that it had been destroyed. Harry couldn't help but think about how dangerous it was for Dumbledore to use the stone as bait in a school full of children; how many could have died?

Dumbledore also revealed that he had been the one to place Harry with the Dursleys, and he had created blood wards that would protect Harry from Voldemort so long as he stayed with his Aunt Petunia, as she was his mother's blood relative. Dumbledore thought that the wards were worth any and all suffering Harry had gone through, but Harry did not. Dumbledore tried to portray himself as a wise man doing the wise thing, but he wasn't the one suffering the consequences; Harry was.

Once the school year ended, Harry went to the magical press and revealed everything about the Dursleys. Needless to say, there was a short riot after. The Muggle haters jumped at the opportunity to claim that they were right to hate Muggles, though the majority of the country was more focused on the fact that their young, national child-hero had been abused. Not long after, the Dursleys were sent to Muggle jail with the exception of Dudley, who was sent to an orphanage.

Harry ended up getting adopted by the Greengrass family, a pureblood family with two daughters, Daphne, who was the same age as him and in Sytherin house, and Astoria, who was a couple of years younger. The Greengrass family treated him worlds better than the Dursleys ever did. During his second year of school he had to deal with more of Snape's bullshit while also trying to deal with their new defence teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, an author and self-proclaimed hero who was more than happy to talk about his dozens of accomplishments.

It didn't take Harry long to realise that the man was a fraud, one of his books claimed him to be fighting a yeti in December, while another stated he was on the other side of the world at that time. Lockhart claimed it was a printing error and ignored several other errors that Harry pointed out in his book. It didn't take long before the other students also realised the truth when Lockhart seemed to rarely show them any magic as he was more focused on them reading his storybooks, and when he did show them magic, he usually messed it up in some way. Still, the year hadn't been too bad, until the attacks, at least.

It started when the caretaker's cat had been petrified and hung upside down from a wall along with a message stating that the 'heir of Slytherin' had returned. Harry and Terry immediately went into the library and researched all they could about Slytherin. One of the more interesting things that Harry learnt was that the Slytherins' family could talk to snakes, an ability that Harry had. He had told Terry, who insisted that Harry should not tell anyone else unless he wanted to become a suspect. Later at the end of the year, Harry ended up confronting the heir of Slytherin, who turned out to be Voldemort. A first-year student had been possessed by one of Voldemort's old books and had been taking control of the girl, making her unleash the monster that had been attacking the students.

The monster in question was a sixty-foot-long basilisk, a giant snake with the most dangerous venom in the world and a gaze that could kill someone on sight. Thankfully, Harry had his own backup in the form of Hedwig, who had browbeaten Dumbledore's phoenix into coming along and helping out by blinding the basilisk. Eventually, Harry was able to defeat the creature by having it damage the environment enough for some very large rubble to crush its head. Harry then destroyed the book with one of the basilisk fangs, freeing the girl and saving the day. Dumbledore had rewarded him with a pat on the shoulder and some school points for simply surviving what would have killed at least thirty other wizards together. Harry decided that wasn't enough and publicly claimed the Slytherin chamber for himself, along with all that was in it. It took a few court battles, but Harry won and had access to everything in there.

He hid all the books he found away and studied them later. While he had the Basilisk dissected, he kept the venom for himself along with some of the fangs, which he later carved into weapons. From them, he created two knives and had a second wand created with the heartstring of a dragon that he would meet in his fourth year. Between the dead basilisk, a few old unwanted books from Slytherin and the philosopher's stone, Harry quickly found money becoming a non-issue.

During the break before Harry's third year, he and the Greengrass family went on a brief trip around the world. They spent some time in France, Germany and even spent a week in Japan, where Harry learnt a couple of their combat spells. Once they came back to the United Kingdom, the group learnt that Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban prison. The man was apparently Voldemort's right-hand man and was supposedly trying to kill Harry. At least that's what everyone thought. Once the school year started, Harry, along with Daphne and Terry, learnt that Sirius had never actually had a trial. Some more digging and they were all but certain that Sirius was actually innocent, especially when they learnt that Sirius was Harry's godfather and had performed the godfather oath, preventing him from truly harming Harry intentionally in any way or form. The school year ended with the reveal that Peter Pettigrew, a former friend of Harry's parents and the man who had revealed the location of the Potters to Voldemort before framing Sirius, was actually alive and hiding out as a rat. He tried to escape in his rat form, but was quickly caught by Hedwig, and the group took him to the authorities.

Sirius was released with a full pardon and was given a large amount of money as compensation. Dumbledore tried to show up and be friendly, but Sirius had all but snarled that Dumbledore was not welcome to breathe the same air as him. Sirius was rightfully angry as Dumbledore had put great effort into rescuing Snape - a member of Voldemort's Death Eaters - from Azkaban, but didn't do the same with Sirius, who had been one of his most loyal supporters.

In Harry's fourth year, the school was hosting the Triwizard tournament, a tournament that Harry was illegally entered into against his will. Despite that, the year wasn't completely bad as he ended up dating one of his competitors from the visiting school, Fleur Delacour. A veela, a member of a species of witches that could produce fireballs, transform into a bird-like state and attract men intentionally or otherwise with a bit of magic known as the allure. Harry appreciated her beauty but truly just enjoyed her witty personality and intelligence; she likely did the same with him, whilst also appreciating him not turning into a drooling idiot like every other boy around her. Michael had groaned and complained that Harry's girl was leagues better looking than his own, which she overheard, and that was how he had lost his first girlfriend and got punched in the face in front of the whole school.

The first task involved Harry trying to steal an egg from a dragon, during which he may or may not have unintentionally killed a dragon. Despite the unfortunate loss of life of an innocent animal that had nothing to do with this bullshit, Harry decided to make the best of the situation and claimed the dragon's body, doing much the same as he did with the basilisk. Keeping what was useful to him and selling the rest, at this point, he was easily richer than the Malfoys, much to Draco's ever-growing annoyance.

Shortly after was a much harder mission, the Yule Ball, a dance that was mandatory for all champions to attend. Harry went with Fleur, and the two had a pretty good time, all things considered. He nearly considered marrying her right there and then when she dropped a bowl of fruit punch on Snape's head while managing to frame it on Draco, all in front of the entire school. Terry had gone with Daphne, and the two quickly formed a relationship. One obligatory brotherly threat to Terry later, and Harry gave the pair his unneeded and unwanted blessing.

During the second task, he saved Terry from an underwater lake before going back and saving Fleur's sister for her, something which earned him a lot of appreciative gestures later from his girlfriend. Finally, the third task had arrived, and Harry found himself fighting through a magical maze before reaching the centre and grabbing the Triwizard cup. The cup turned out to be a portkey, one that spat him out in a graveyard where he was tied up and forced to witness Voldemort's return as the dark lord managed to create a body.

The two fought, and Harry just about managed to escape with his life. Shortly after, Harry lost what little faith he had in the government when the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, refused to believe his story about Voldemort returning, and the following year, he sent his right-hand woman, Dolores Umbridge, to the school to keep an eye on things. Dumbledore, despite his near-unlimited power, did not force the issue and let Fudge get away with removing him from his government positions and publicly smearing Harry's name.

After his second year, Harry had given the diary to Mr Greengrass, who had been trying to work out what it was. Once Sirius had been brought in, the pair discovered that it was a horcrux, a soul anchor that was keeping Voldemort alive and that there was likely more. After Harry's battle with the dark lord, the two began working harder than ever to try and find out where and what they were. Sirius also revealed to Harry that Dumbledore had his group of followers guard a prophecy about him. Sirius revealed the words of the prophecy, despite Dumbledore's hard objections against doing so; the essential gist of it was that Harry would have to end Voldemort with a power that Voldemort knows not, at least that was the interpretation of it that they were willing to bet on. Dumbledore, at one point, had tried to convince Harry that the power Voldemort knew not was 'love'. Dumbledore was hopefully thankful that there were people in the room to stop Harry after he had decked him.

'He tries to justify leaving me in an abusive environment and then has the audacity to claim that love is my power?!'

Harry had spent the majority of his fifth year at school trying to avoid the nightmare that was Dolores Umbridge who seemed intent on restricting each and every student in the school as she and the Minister believed that Dumbledore was intending to use school children to overthrow the Ministry and they naturally believed that Harry was in on it and was the leader of these students because he and Dumbledore were obviously such good friends.

Dumbasses. The whole lot of them.

Still, it wasn't all bad. For some reason, Dumbledore started to ignore him throughout the rest of the year, much to Harry's delight. He'd later learn it was because the man suspected that Voldemort would try to get to him by possessing Harry. It turned out that one of Voldy's horcruxes was in Harry's head, right behind the lightning bolt scar. Dumbledore knew and kept it to himself, as he often did with important information relating to Harry, but Harry had already known by that point. Sirius and Greengrass both had access to some very old books, especially since Harry took ownership of the chamber.

The two eventually were able to track down the locations of each and every horcrux, including the one in Harry's head. But they only really needed one; the pair of them found a locket of Voldemort's that turned out to be a horcrux and used that one as part of a ritual to track the others and destroy them remotely. So, the horcrux in Harry's head was gone, not that any of them told Dumbledore. Harry figured that if Dumbledore knew about the horcrux and hadn't told Harry, then it was because of one of two things. Either he was secretly trying to find a way to get rid of it safely, or he was planning to get rid of it by getting rid of Harry, unfortunately, the second option seemed the most likely.

One unintentional benefit of having Umbridge in the school was that it helped increase Harry's popularity amongst the student population. After a while, it became clear to everyone that Umbridge was sent to the school specifically to keep Harry's mouth shut and eventually everyone started wondering why that was. After all, if Harry was truly as unhinged and crazy as everyone was trying to make him, then surely they would just leave him alone since Voldemort wouldn't be coming back to prove Harry right. But it was mighty suspicious when the head of the government's number one woman was actively trying to shut him up, then it might just be possible that there was something the government wanted them not to know.

Not to mention the horrible treatment coming from Umbridge. It was clear to even the most dimwitted of students that Umbridge was not a fan of Muggleborns, to put it lightly, something that made her unpopular with a lot of students. Then you had to add in her patronising and condescending tones, the disrespect to other teachers, unfair treatment to anyone who wasn't a pureblooded Slytherin, treating students like they were babies, removing all practical lessons from the school, and even going so far as to torture students with blood quills during detentions. The teachers weren't in any position (or inclination for some) to help the students, so they turned to the one person they believed would: Harry Potter.

A secret group was soon formed amongst the students, one that was led by Harry and known as the 'Titans'. Harry helped the other students with their practical and theoretical magic, being the only thing that helped many of them pass their exams. Many people in the group would soon join Harry in his battle against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Near the end of the year, Voldemort tried to lure Harry to the Department of Mysteries with a vision of Sirius being tortured. One quick mirror call to Sirius later, and Harry realised that it was a trap, so he decided to spring one of his own. He had known for a while that Voldemort would be going after the prophecy so he had the Ministry mapped out and had set up several plans of escape if he ever had to go there and confront Voldemort.

Harry, along with his family and the Titans, all showed up and captured a good twenty Death Eaters, including Lucius Malfoy (Sorry, not sorry, Draco). Voldemort had arrived, and he had fought with Harry before Dumbledore and his Order arrived. Dumbledore, interfering old man that he was, interfered in their fight, nearly getting Harry's head cut off when he tried to push Harry out of the fight and instead pushed him in the path of a cutting curse that clipped Harry's shoulder. Harry had pulled out his second wand and hit both of them with a spell when they were focused on each other. For the dark lord, one powerful, piercing curse that made a giant hole in Voldemort's torso. As for Dumbledore, he got an overpowered disarming charm that sent him flying back while also ripping Dumbledore's wand out of his hands. Dumbledore ended up looking more horrified than Voldemort.

It was around that moment that the rest of the Ministry arrived, including a shell-shocked Fudge, who watched as Voldemort's wraith form flew out of his body, which crumbled into dust, and vowed vengeance before flying away. Dumbledore had recovered by then, picked up his wand and tried to act like the whole thing had been his idea in the first place before telling Harry he needed to head to his office now. One less-than-polite refusal later, and Harry went to spend the night at Sirius's place. What little remained of the school year and the rest of Harry's summer break were spent with Dumbledore constantly trying to get in contact with Harry.

Harry had spent his entire summer on another world tour, this time with Fleur and her family. The group visited several countries, and Harry spent his time training to fight Voldemort and relaxing with his girlfriend, so he didn't overwork himself. Near the end of the summer holidays, Harry returned to England and joined Sirius in destroying another horcrux. The pair considered having a party as they only had to find and destroy one more horcrux before Voldemort was mortal again. They began considering it just before they received some news. Harry had barely left France when Voldemort arrived there with a new and stronger body that he used to kill the Delacours. He made the biggest mistake of his life.

Not only had he given Harry some fierce motivation to end Voldemort's existence, he had also created an international incident as the Delacours were high up in the French Ministry. Soon, the ICW (wizarding equivalent of the U.N) got involved and sent help. The Death Eaters (what remained of them) didn't last long after that, and Voldemort put the majority of his focus into not being caught. Harry joined Sirius and Mr Greengrass in the Horcrux hunt, they found out that Dumbledore himself had stumbled upon one in the form of an old ring and got cursed by it, leaving him with little more than a month or so to live. It could have perhaps been longer if he had Snape with him to help but Snape had been taken in for questioning along with all Death Eaters, former or otherwise.

Dumbledore had tried desperately to get Snape free, but it didn't work as the new Minister, Amelia Bones, hated Death Eaters with a passion and had the backing of the French Ministry, the ICW and several important families, including the Potter, Greengrass and Blacks. Snape had been interrogated with truth serum and it was revealed that the man had committed many, many crimes over the years, including but not limited to illegally entering the minds of dozens of underage individuals, brewing illegal potions, performing illegal spells (including but not limited to the three unforgivable spells, even one of those was a lifetime in Azkaban prison) and revealing the location of the Potter's to Voldemort, not to mention several murders.

Needless to say, Snape wasn't worming his way out of this one.

In his final moments, Dumbldore tried repeatedly to contact Harry who refused to meet him right until he was sure that Dumbledore was a step away from his death bed as he wanted the man to realise he had one chance only to impart information to Harry and wouldn't get another, making sure he knew that he had only one chance left to be honest. Dumbledore told Harry everything he knew, most of which Harry knew already, and before dying, he left Harry the ring that Dumbledore had gotten, the former horcrux.

It turned out the ring was one of the three Deathly Hallows, three items that were rumoured to be created by death. One was an unbeatable wand, the wand that Dumbledore possessed and was buried with. The second was the ring, an item that reportedly could let someone talk to the dead. The third was an invisibility cloak, the same one that had been passed through Harry's family for generations. Together, the three items could be rumoured to turn the bearer into the Master of Death.

It was not long after this that Harry had his final confrontation with Voldemort. The two fought each other with all they had. Voldemort threw deadly curses around like they were about to go out of fashion, and Harry spent the whole fight barely staying alive. Stalling until he knew Sirius and the Greengrasses were able to destroy Voldemort's final Horcrux. It became obvious when it happened as Voldemort ended up falling over in the middle of casting a spell that unleashed cursed flames, which ended up devouring the lower half of his body. In his last moments, Voldemort shot his signature killing curse at Harry just as Harry shot a reduction curse at Voldemort. Harry's curse connected with Voldemort's head and turned it into nothing but ash, while Voldemort's curse hit Harry right in the face.

Which was how Harry found himself where he currently was.

In the Muggle world, he had once been told by one of his teachers that black is the absence of colour and that white is the opposite, all of the colours put together. Yet here, he couldn't help but feel the opposite. He was standing on white, surrounded by white; everything from the floor to the sky was the purest white you could imagine. There was no warmth, no cold, no life; there was nothing here.

"Hello, Harry," A voice spoke.

Turning around, Harry paused as he saw a girl standing in front of him. She appeared to be his age, dressed in a beautiful, double-strapped dress that descended down to the ground beneath her. Fingerless gloves reached from her hands all the way up to her elbows, and she wore a golden necklace with the symbol of the hallows, a circle inside a triangle with a line cutting from the top point all the way through the circle to the bottom of the triangle. The necklace was the only splash of colour she had; the rest of her clothes were the same colour as her long, straight hair. A black that truly made it feel like there was no colour left in the world. Her skin was as pale as snow. Her face was so beautiful that Harry suspected even Fleur herself would be jealous.

"Who are you?" Harry asked cautiously.

"You already know the answer to that, don't you?" She asked. Her voice was light, yet it echoed. Not just throughout this soulless place, but also through his very body, through his very soul. Harry took in a deep breath, not breaking eye contact even once.

"You're 'Death', right?" Harry asked somberly.

"That I am," She said, gesturing to herself. "I don't normally take this form, but I thought it'd be less intimidating for you."

"Appreciated," Harry said with a small nod. "Forgive me, I didn't know that Death would be a woman."

"I don't have a gender," Death chuckled. "I take whatever form I please. I could have just as easily appeared in the form of a three-legged baby or a nine-tailed chipmunk."

"Ah," Harry said in understanding. "I see. Well, I suppose it's my time then, right? I am dead, correct?"

"Nope,"

"As I thought, I...wait...what?" Harry asked in confusion.

"It's all a bit more complicated than it usually is, young Harry." Death said with a sad smile. "You see, here's the thing. A lot of people have an image of me, and a lot of people are of the image that I'm the bad guy. An inescapable monster from which no one is safe. Some can delay me for a few years, some for a lot longer, but I come for everyone, equally. It's my job, it's part of what makes the world keep running. Without me, there's no room for new life since the old ones are still here. Without me, life becomes far less valuable since it's everlasting. Like it or not, I'm a necessary cog in the works. I take no joy, usually, in what I do; I just do my job. I'm fair. Tom Riddle, the one known as Voldemort, has tried to escape me for so long. I take personal offence to that, I assure you, Mr Potter, that he will suffer greatly now that he is in my grasp." She said, her smile becoming a bit more pointed.

"Good," Harry smiled in a satisfied voice.

"Indeed," She agreed. "But then there's the question of what to do with you. As I said, I am fair. I take only one soul from everyone, yet you come with two. You destroyed all of his horcruxes, including the one still in your head. Except you hadn't quite managed that part.

"What do you mean?" Harry frowned deeply.

"The ritual you performed destroyed the horcruxes, but the one inside you had welded with your magic, and your soul as well. It's not a full horcrux as it's not enough left to quantify as a whole soul, but it is there."

"Okay, what does that have to do with anything?" Harry asked while digesting that piece of information.

"A lot," She said, her grin spreading almost impossibly wide. "You see, as I said, I only take one soul from each person. Yet you come with two, or at least your own and one that I could generously count as a soul piece of Tom Riddle. Now, between a well-intentioned person like yourself and an imbecile who claimed openly to have beaten me whilst naming his followers as 'Death Eaters', I know which soul I'd prefer to take. Not to mention your current status should also be considered."

"My status?" Harry repeated. "What are you talking about?"

"You possess all three hallows, do you not?"

"What? No, I don't. I-"

"The invisibility cloak in your possession, plus the ring that Dumbledore gifted you." She cut him off. "Not to mention that you disarmed Dumbledore, the allegiance of the Elder Wand transferred to you. You, Harry Potter, are the true owner of the Hallows. The 'Master of Death'." She finished, allowing a long silence to reign. A silence that Harry eventually destroyed.

"Bullshit."

"I beg your pardon?" She asked in an amused voice.

"I don't claim to be the smartest person alive, but I know damn well that I am no master of you," He said bluntly.

"Your 'wise' headmaster didn't seem to realise that," She smiled proudly at him. "He, like many others, thought that he could become my master. He can't; that's just a lie that was made up years ago. I did create those items, but there was no way I'd risk any random mortal getting control of me. Fate is ever changing, after all. Trust me, I grew up with her; she's a fickle bitch."

"I believe you," Harry said at once.

"You would," She said, amusedly. "But that still leaves me in my current situation. I have a war hero here with an extra soul when I only need one, and he is also the owner of three items I want back. And if that's not enough, then another portion of my being needs your assistance with something. So, Harry Potter," A scroll appeared and floated in front of him. A quill arrived with it, and the scroll opened. "How about we make a deal? Just you and me. I am open to negotiations."

"What kind of deal?" Harry frowned, taking the scroll in his hand.

"I need a favour from you," She said honestly as he started reading. "I have a couple of tasks I need to have done on the world I'm sending you. Unfortunately, I'm no longer allowed to send avatars of myself anymore. Not after the unfortunate incident with the dinosaur planet."

"I'm sorry, what?" Harry looked away from the scroll.

"Don't ask," She said bluntly. "Anyway, I need a few things done. In exchange, you get to live a life there. I will have no control over what kind of life it is. I don't control who you end up with, what you do there or what is done to you and so on. Is that understood? If so, finish reading and then we'll discuss terms."

"Fair enough," Harry said as he went back to the scroll. "But there's one thing that I am not going to budge on."

(.)

Harry tried to open his eyes but failed to do so; his whole body shivered. He was cold, sweaty, tired, and a million other things; most were not positive things. Harry heard voices, but they were too loud; he could feel somebody holding him. The funny thing was that they were holding up in the air with just two hands, two incredibly cold hands. Harry tried to move but paused when he realised that his body felt different. Harry suddenly felt himself wrapped up in something that covered him from his neck to his toes, he then felt a very large pair of hands be placed under him, one hand holding him by his lower back and the other holding his head up, judging by the size of the hands Harry realized that he was either incredibly small or being held by a giant, he didn't really know which was better. A short while later, Harry heard a voice speak.

"He is so beautiful," A female-sounding voice spoke. The person it belonged to sounded very happy. Fighting against his heavy eyelids and all the mess he felt around his eyelids, he opened his eyes and was barely able to see the woman that he was being held up by. Her brown hair was soaked in sweat and pressed against her head, her olive-toned skin was red from exertion and emotion, and her green eyes were teary as she stared at him. "Welcome to the land of the living, my son." She said proudly as she stared at him.

"I'm proud of you, daughter," Another voice spoke, a man's voice. The speaker walked into view. He had black hair on the top of his head, grey on the sides and a beard that was closer to the top of his head in colour but was starting to become a bit grey. He was dressed in fancy-looking armour and had a black cape around his shoulders. "He will be a worthy addition to our family." The man declared, staring down at Harry with a smirk.

The sound of wind was heard, and both adults quickly looked to their left just in time to see something fly towards them, a small white blur flew past them and landed on the woman's arm. The two of them stared in shock as this white baby owl ignored them in favour of pressing its head against the baby in front of them. Meanwhile, Harry smiled as best as he could. He had Hedwig with him again; that was more than enough for him.