Death Never Stopped Me Before

|Chapter 6|

Harry doesn't know where he is. One moment he was looking at Tom's horrified face as the spell came hurtling towards him, and the next moment he's opening his eyes to see a blank void of white nothingness as far as the eye can see. He's sitting on what he thinks is the ground, his reflection staring back at him, making it look like the ground of this place was just one huge mirror. It's quiet in this place, Harry muses, as he looks around the void.

The quiet is peaceful. Here, Harry doesn't feel fear or pain—none of the emotions and feelings that he's grown used to—only peace and tranquility. He holds his legs to his chest and rests his head on his knees and breathes in deeply, enjoying the feeling of his lungs inflating and deflating.

Harry doesn't know where he is, but wherever it is, he never wants to leave.

He's not sure how much time has passed when he feels the presence, it could have been days or a few seconds, but when he feels the tranquil warmth get a little chillier, Harry opens his eyes and looks to the left. There, sitting next to him is a shadowy figure clothed in the stars. The sudden color blinds him, as his eyes have grown used to the blank white, and Harry squints his eyes to focus on the ever-changing galaxy on the figure's cloak. It looks like the figure has taken the universe itself and wrapped it into a cloth, and when Harry looks closer, he can see the stars and galaxies moving.

Harry trails his eyes from the cloak to the figure wearing it, his eyes widening when he sees a boy, aged ten or eleven, with pitch-black hair that falls to his shoulders and skin as pale as the nothingness that surrounds him. In the space where the boy's eyes should be, sit two empty sockets glowing with a green light. This, combined with his pale color and tiny figure, makes the boy look skeletal and sickly.

Harry sits in silence for a little while longer, moving his eyes away from the figure in the stars to look at the endless void. The figure says nothing, choosing, instead, to sit next to Harry in silence. Harry can feel the goosebumps on his arms raise the longer they sit there in silence, the chill steadily getting colder.

It's Harry who breaks the silence with a quiet, "Who are you?"

The figure finally turns to meet Harry's inquisitive gaze, the face hauntingly expressionless. "I am Death." he says, and Harry shivers at the child-like voice that comes out of the otherworldly figure.

"Am I dead?" Harry asks, even though he already knows the answer. He must be dead if he's sitting here talking to Death. Harry remembered the Killing Curse hit him, he could remember the way Tom's eyes widened with horror as he reached out to try and stop it, but it was too late.

Death hums. "You are not quite dead," he says, making Harry's eyes widen with surprise. "But you are not quite alive, either."

"O-Oh." Harry says, unsure of how he's supposed to respond to that. Harry opens his mouth to ask another question but thinks better of it, choosing to bite his lip instead. Death sat in an unnaturally stiff position, his legs crossed in a way to look human, but his board-like posture made him look awkward and uncomfortable. It made Harry's back ache just looking at it.

They sit in silence for even longer—or perhaps, no time has passed at all. The movement of time in this place was strange, and Harry didn't really understand it at all—Harry in his relaxed, albeit defensive, form, and Death in his unnatural stance.

"So... Why am I here?" Harry finally asks, the silence becoming tense and awkward. Death looks at Harry, his eye-less sockets making Harry tense.

"Because you weren't ready to go," he says, making Harry's face scrunch up with more confusion. So far, Harry has received no answers, only more questions. Death leans forward to push his hands against the strange ground and stand up, his galaxy cloak fluttering against the nonexistent wind. He starts to walk away from Harry, his feet making no noise as they hit the ground. Harry watches him walk away for a few moments before he pauses and turns around to look at him. "Follow me."