Death Never Stopped Me Before

|Chapter 10|

"What are you talking about? See for myself? What does that mean?" Harry asked, looking at Merope's disfigured face with immense confusion.

"Mortal souls have the option to stay here, in the In Between, and watch the mortals on Earth," Death said in a bland tone. Harry's head snapped up with shock, the idea of watching his friends, watching Tom cope with Harry's loss felt... wonderfully awful. Harry, while trapped in his oxymoronic feelings, missed Merope's hand moving towards his shoulder until it was too late.

The sudden feeling on his shoulder made Harry flinch backward, his emerald eyes widening as they made contact with Merope's. She smiled gently at him and her thumb began to brush his skin soothingly. "It's a little daunting, I know," she whispered kindly. "Not a lot of souls choose to do this. They'd prefer to move on to the AfterLife and meet their loved ones there."

"Did you stay?" Harry found himself asking, recalling the way she mentioned watching Tom from their earlier conversation. Merope nodded, a fond glint entering her eyes. "Why? Why didn't you move on? You would've been in peace."

Merope hummed. "I suppose a part of me felt as though I didn't deserve to be at peace," she answered honestly, darting her gaze downward to avoid Harry's response. "However, another part of me—the maternal part—longed to watch after my baby, if only in spirit. I abandoned him in the living world, I simply couldn't abandon him in the spiritual."

"You died," Harry found himself saying. "That's different."

"Yes, I suppose it is." came Merope's melancholic response.

The three of them sat in silence for a while, and Harry wondered if this was some kind of cosmic joke. Death, Merope, and the Boy-Who-Lived, all sat together in purgatory. Despite himself, Harry grinned.

"Would you like to watch him?" Merope asked, bringing Harry's attention back to the present.

"I... I don't know," Harry answered honestly. "I'd like to see him, of course, but I don't know if I'll like what I see. I mean, so much time must have passed..."

"Time passes differently here," Merope said. "For us, it has felt like quite a lot of time, and somehow no time has passed at all."

"What do you mean? Like, to Tom, I just died?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Quite so, Master," Death said. "Would you like to see what happened?"

"Happened or is happening?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"As Merope stated, time is not linear here," Death replied. "Time in the mortal realm moves in a straight line, one thing happens and then a next. Here time is more of an afterthought. Events are always happening, have already happened or might happen, all at the same time."

Harry's head hurt just thinking about it. Rather than ask for Death to explain more, which would somehow result in Harry's head bursting, he chose to simply say, "I'll watch."

Death nodded. "Watching the events in the mortal realm will help you come to your decision," he said, leaning forward towards the reflective ground of the In Between. His fingers, sickly skeletal yet somehow still humanoid, lightly tapped the ground, and ripples moved throughout the reflection, like that of water being displaced. Harry watched, mystified, as the ripples moved and grew, but Harry didn't feel it against his sitting form. The ripples, previously reflecting the pure white void, began to dance with color, slowly condensing to form an image. "It will help you decide whether you wish to stay or return."

Harry said nothing, only watching with awe as the ripples ceased, and in their place was the image of Hogwarts, the previously grand castle completely destroyed from the battle. Harry watches as his lover marches onto the ground cradling Harry's body, a mask of clean indifference on his face. Harry had seen the look often enough to be able to see past it, and the amount of grief and agony inside his eyes made Harry gasp.