Chapter Text
Harry was warm, warm and ohh so comfortable.
Now, while for most this isn't usually something worth commenting on, Harry had spent the better part of a year cold, hungry and exhausted. Even stranger, his last memory before waking up was being EXTREMELY cold and uncomfortable and also undeniably wet, as he had been at the bottom of a frozen pond, in winter, in his underwear! So he was, understandably so, confused as to why he now felt none of that. Nor the hunger that had been his constant companion during his hunt for the Horcruxes. Or the pain all over his body from years of abuse, malnourishment and repeated untreated injuries.
As he opened his eyes, his first guess (that Hermione had found him, brought him back to the tent and "somehow" become a Master at the healing arts) was proved to be wrong, by a fair margin, for he sat in a very large chair wrapped in a blanket, in front of a wonderfully large roaring fire. Honestly, he was torn between wanting to go back to sleep, to enjoy whatever delightful fever dream this was, and staying awake if only to properly appreciate just how amazing he felt right now. He decided (quite maturely in his own wise opinion) that he would have the best of both and snuggled down into the blanket with the intention of partially dozing off, when a rather feminine giggle (Hermione did NOT giggle femininely) had him snapping his eyes open rather comically wide. He proceeded to attempt to jump into a defensive position in order to find the source of the noise. "Attempt" being the operative word as, in his haste he forgot about the little blanket burrito he had made himself into and promptly tripped and fell flat on his face. The giggle which had originally alerted him, now turned into full blown peals of laughter.
When he finally managed to pull himself right ways up, he scanned the room and found another chair much like his own, set to the other side of the fire. In it sat a woman, at least he figured woman was the right term, and not girl or lady. It was rather hard to tell the persons age. She was neither old looking (she looked nothing like Professor McGonagall or Madame Pomphrey) but nor could he say she was particularly young either. For all her youthful appearance, she had a presence about her that screamed knowledge and wisdom, like she had experienced everything there was to experience, seen all there was to see.
She had long dark hair, to call it black would have been to under sell it, and it seemed to shimmer in all the shades of black there ever could be. She had porcelain skin, not unhealthily pale but white, like fresh fallen snow. Her eyes however were what stopped him dead in his tracks, for they were beautiful. There was no iris or pupil that he could see, instead it was like looking at a flowing picture of the universe. He didn't know how, but he knew, unquestionably, that he was watching the birth and death of entire galaxies in her eyes.
When finally she stopped laughing and spoke to him, her voice flowed from a youthful pitch through to an aged whisper continuously and yet also all at the same time.
"Greetings Harry Potter, I'm glad you finally woke up, though I must admit you did look rather adorable all cozy over there" she said with an amused lilt.
Blushing from both falling flat on his face ("Very coordinated Potter" he thought) to also being called adorable by an admittedly attractive woman, he asked the only sensible question one could ask, "Sorry but, Who are you?"
Smiling a rather beatific smile, she answered "Hmmm, I have been known by many names but perhaps here and now, you may call me Hel".
"Oh, Okay Hel, well you seem to know who I am. Did you pull me out of the water?" Harry replied nervously (after all, at the moment, one couldn't be sure if she was a threat. If she knew who he was, then she could be a potential friend and ally, but also a potential Death Eater or Sympathizer).
At this comment, her smile turned a little sad. "Yes, I did pull you from the water, though not in the way that you would hope. Tell me Mr. Potter, what do you remember?"
Harry was a little puzzled by this, how do you pull someone from a freezing pond "not in the way you'd hope"? Figuring he would get his own answer if he provided Hel with one, he thought back to what he could recall before waking up. He had been led to an area with a pond in the middle of the night by, what he now figured was a Patronus of a Doe. When the doe had disappeared, he had searched the area and had discovered the Sword of Gryffindor at the bottom of the pond. It had been resistant to summoning charms and so he had decided (again in his infinite wisdom) to strip down and enter the pool of frozen water.
It had been so painful, he actually thought he'd been burning. He persevered however to the bottom, but the moment his hand had clasped the hilt of the sword, the Horcrux Locket around his neck had struck. It had started to strangle him and pull him down. He had kicked and struggled but the burning in his chest as the air ran out grew worse, his vision became spotty and the irresistible urge to simply breathe had won out.
His last coherent memory before waking in the chair, comfortable and warm, had been a darkening glimpse of ice above him as he drowned in the bottom of a frozen pool, in the Forest of Dean with the Sword of Gryffindor in one hand and the chain of a murderous Horcrux in the other.
Harry stumbled back to his chair, hand going to his throat where he expected to find the locket, or at least the marks it had left from how tightly it had choked him. Instead he found unblemished skin. Looking up and across to the other occupant of the room, he saw confirmation of the unasked question in her impossible eyes. Harry Potter had died.
With this confirmation he sank back into the comfort of his chair. He had failed. All those people that had depended on him, all those who had already given their lives so he could live to fight on, all of those people currently suffering under the reign of a Ministry ruled by a psychopath with daddy issues and delusions of godhood. All of them waiting on Him, and He had failed, in the middle of nowhere, half naked at the bottom of a pond. With all of this running through his head, he slowly looked up and once again asked, really, the only question he could think of, "okay, so who are you?"
She sat there for a time after his question simply staring at him, measuring him, assessing some unknown quantity in him. They sat like this for long enough that he was just about to ask again, when, assuming she had come to some sort of decision, answered with "I am Death".
Blinking owlishly at that answer, Harry tried to wrap his head around the fact that Death (Capital D, thank you very much) was not some ghastly robed specter with a menacing scythe, nor some decrepit skeleton, clawing at his flesh, but was instead a rather pleasant (and pleasant to look at) woman that seemed to be taking her time easing him into the whole "you're dead" thing. Honestly, other than the dying bit, (and the crushing knowledge that he had failed everyone he had ever held dear) death hadn't been too bad so far.
That being said, he wanted to know what happened next. Signifying that he would like "Hel" to continue with a nod that he had heard her, he listened as she explained what was happening.
"You, Harry James Potter, are both the one true ray of hope in my long existence and also, at the same time, the very bane of it." she stated with both fondness and frustration in equal measure. "In all of the timelines, in all of the universes and in all of the potential possibilities, I have never come across anyone, and I mean ANYONE, who has had the potential to be and do everything I need whilst also managing to systematically muck it up in the process. Worst of all I can't even be mad at you for it, because 99% of the time its not even your fault, but the fault of those around you who can't seem to help but meddle and interfere" By the end of this little rant she was practically spitting in rage, and yet Harry had no fear of her. He somehow knew this anger was not directed at him, but rather the situation, and these others that she had mentioned.
When she managed to calm herself down, she continued, "Sorry. I have been hoping and hoping, time and time again that finally something would be different, but I have realized that as you are now, or rather as your path has been laid out, it will never have a chance to be"
"What exactly is it you are hoping for" Harry queried a little confused. Did she mean the defeat of Riddle? Was his mission always doomed to fail? In all these other timelines and realities, did he always loose? Fearing her answer, Harry prepared himself for the worst.
"I am an immortal aspect Mr. Pott-"
she was cut of with "Harry, just, Harry please. Saying Mr. Potter always has me expecting Prof McGonagall taking points off for some reason or other" Harry interjected bashfully.
"Harry" she continued with a smile that caused a warmth to rise to his cheeks. "As I said, I am an immortal aspect. I am a requirement for the universe to exist. I simply am. I have been here since the beginning of all that is, was and could ever be, and I will be here when all of it finally ends." As she said this, he could detect a certain grief, an acceptance that this was inevitable. He didn't like her looking like that and he was quite shocked at how such a look on her beautiful face effected him.
"I, and the others like me, took part in the creation of all that is, and in doing so, imparted a little piece of ourselves in all things. However, though we can watch, influence and even direct the flow of existence, we can never truly experience it. Or at least we couldn't, until The Mother, whom you refer to as Lady Magic, gave us a means to finally know that which every mortal life takes for granted.
Of course, this came with conditions that needed to be met in order for us to take advantage of the offer. Each of us, Death, Life, Time, Fate & Magic Herself had different rules to follow as we each embodied a different aspect of reality."
Harry's head was spinning, this was ALOT of information, and he still hadn't a clue where he came into it, but by this point he had realized, that his fight against Riddle wasn't what she had been referring to earlier.
Honestly, he wasn't entirely sure if that made him feel better or worse.
As Hel was about to continue with her story, a door that Harry hadn't seen to the side of the room, burst open and a small white blonde missile hurtled in, squealing at the top of its lungs, straight at Harry. Before he even had time to register this this being was heading directly at him, it had glomped onto him and was now babbling quite enthusiastically in his ear, though for the life of him, between the shock and the deafening squeal it had emitted, he couldn't make out a word of what was being said.
Just as he had finally become aware enough again to identify that the small babbling missile was in actuality a youngish white blonde female, she detached from him and proceeded to change target to the other occupant of the room. Hel, however was obviously both more prepared for this and, he assumed, already acquainted with this person, for she immediately grabbed the young girl mid flight and pinned her to the floor.
"Gaia, just what do you think you are you doing, and what did I tell you about coming into my room without asking OR knocking?!" Hel shouted at the young girl. Harry recognized that name, he had read it in the library when hiding from Dudley and his gang when he was a kid. Gaia was a the name for "Mother Earth" or Life. Was this little girl another immortal aspect?
Just before he could question the 2 women, Hel let Gaia up, and before Harrys eyes, the small blonde aged to match the older woman. Now stood before him was another beauty, while Hel was slim and delicate, Gaia was graced with curves that would make any man (and quite a few women) blush and she had a golden tan as if she had spent all her life in the sun. Her hair flowed like sunlight down to her waist, but like Hel, it was her eyes that held him. They were mesmerizing, unlike Hel's there was a definable iris and pupil, but her irises flowed a multitude of colors. Dark rich greens in all their shades of life, moved to blues so deep, he felt like he was drowning in them back to light blues of the clearest sky and back again over and over.
He was broken from his gaze when Hel made introductions, "Harry, this is my sister, Gaia, the aspect of Life. Gaia, this is Harry Potter"
"Ohhh I know who he is sister, after all, considering our agreement, its hard not to figure out EXACTLY who you would literally pull from the Ether. I'm just surprised that all you are doing is sitting talking to him after how long you have been waiting. So has he agreed yet? When do I get to tell him my part?!" Gaia gushed both energetically and with a certain hint of a purr in her voice as she eyed him up. Whatever was going on here, it seemed Hel wasn't all that impressed with Gaia's interruption as she immediately put herself between Harry and Gaia. "You have had plenty of fun with your own avatars, you can show some bloody restraint" she replied quite hotly, and with a hint of a blush, followed up with "and any way I haven't, actually gotten to the point of explaining what's going on as he has just woken up"
"just woken up? but he's been here for ages?" replied Gaia with a confused expression, "Wait, were you watching him sleep?" she shouted excitedly, as if she had just caught Hel with her hand in the proverbial cookie jar. Rather than deny this accusation, Hel instead looked at Harry with a bashful guilty expression and proceeded to blush even deeper. Harry admitted to himself that he rather liked seeing her blush like that. "He had just went through a traumatic experience, I am about to ask him to do something exceptionally difficult and on top of all that, unlike you, this is MY FIRST BLOODY TIME DOING SOMETHING LIKE THIS AND I WANT TO GET IT RIGHT!!" Hel shouted back at Gaia going completely scarlet as what she had just said finally registered, much to the obvious amusement of said blonde. Even Harry was smiling a little at the strange dynamics he was watching.
Before things escalated, (who knows if he could survive an immortal bitch fight) he stepped in "Ummmm can one of you explain exactly what's going on here and what it is that I am supposed to be doing? Not that I'm not happy to not be drowning and all, but I thought that when you die you did the whole "Hell/Heaven thing, or is reincarnation real? Can I pick what I go back as?"
Hel, again, looked both fond and exasperated while Gaia doubled over laughing at Harry's hopeful expression. "I like him" She enthused to Hel, before calming down and flouncing elegantly over to Hel's chair and plopping herself on the armrest. "I promise I'll behave until story time is over, but don't drag this out Hel, or else I can't be held responsible for my actions" Gaia smiled over at Harrys direction as she said this, again causing Hel to step between them.
"Well if you are going to behave then that means you stay quiet as well, I'm nervous enough without you butting in any more than you already have." Hel replied back with a little pout that caused Harry to seriously struggled not to kiss off her face. (He really needed to get a hold of himself, the was the personification of Death and he was behaving like a horny teenager).
"As I was saying Harry, before we were so rudely interrupted" Hel began again, whilst standing near the fireplace, shooting a glare in Gaia's direction, who simply replied with a cheeky grin. "We, the aspects, were given a set of rules, or conditions in which we could experience reality like a mortal being. Each of these rules vary from aspect to aspect. Life for example can sample parts of reality a little bit at a time. To do this she can choose an avatar that is touched by her aspect to such a degree that they become aware of her, and in that short period of time she can live through them. It is fleeting for her however, which is the price we must pay for us to have access to it so often. For myself, while the rules are similar, in that my avatar must be greatly touched by death, any that could count for this have already passed on and so all I can experience from them is their ending, their fondest memories, and their regrets."
As she stated this Harry could see the longing in her stance, she had begun pacing as she spoke, becoming more and more agitated, like being shown a glimpse of paradise, but forever having it held out of reach. Looking over at Gaia, he saw a similar expression on her face but also a great sympathy aimed at her sister. For all the bickering he had witnessed, he realized there was love there. They did want the best for each other it seemed.
Hel continued, unaware of Harrys observations, "Over the eons I have sought any means by which I could try and experience all that mortal life could offer, and eventually I found that my sister Gaia, was in a similar position, while she could experience reality, it was so fleeting as to almost be cruel. Like a starving man being shown a banquet and being fed crumbs. So together, we approached our Mother, Circe the aspect of Magic, and begged her to give us another way, and She gave us You" With this statement, she turned to face him directly, but there was none of the passionate, agitated or confident Goddess. Instead, there was a girl, shy and unsure and afraid of what might come from her next words.
Before Harry could question what exactly Hel meant, Gaia explained "She didn't actually give us you, more she gave us a set of, shall we say, conditions and pointed us in your general direction. Now keep in mind, general direction is still quite a broad stroke as far as everlasting immortal beings are concerned, so we still had a fair amount of leg work to do" she explained while waving her hands between herself and Hel. "In order to both have what we wanted we had to find an avatar that was touched by ALL the aspects, further we not only had to basically limit ourselves to this 1 avatar for the remainder of their universe (they can choose to stay with us after that, but that's the minimum requirement) but they had to join with us willingly and knowingly" Gaia finished her explanation casually.
Now, Harry would be one of the first to tell you that while he was not Hermione Granger level intelligent, he was smarter than your average flobber worm, and while he was getting a lot of information thrown at him, he did quickly realize that these 2 immortal Goddesses may, just possibly, be referring to him here. Maybe. So being the direct Gryffindor that he was, he took the proverbial 'bull by the horns' and checked in the most respectful manner he could muster "And you think that's me? Harry bloody Potter, cock-up extraordinaire? the-boy-who-couldn't-even-swim and drowned in a bloody pond?" Okay, so maybe he was a little overwhelmed, sue him.
Hel threw her sister a look, as if to say, 'you were meant to be bloody quiet', which got little more than a passive shrug in return. Hel then turned back to Harry to try and explain "Gaia and I followed Mothers instructions to a collection of realities, all with roughly the same world involved. We further narrowed it down via the involvement of each of the aspects and found several hundred left. Now that may seem a lot but when you think that there are an infinite number of universes out there, several hundred is small change" she added with a smirk, as if this was some great inner joke he should get. Realizing Harry may not see the humour of this she quickly continued "We continued looking to see if we could find a point of convergence, where all our influences met, and while we could never get them all to line up, we did find that they always came closest to one person Harry. One person that we have both been watching over now in hundreds of realities.
You."