Death's Fury

Meanwhile, the Reaper who had been keeping watch on the Master of Death saw as Master wondered as to who had taken control over his mortal body and talked to others. 

Thinking that it might have been Death who must have done it, the Reaper felt anxious on behalf of all his colleagues. 

After all, no matter what, if Death did something wrong and angered Master, wouldn't it spell doom for everyone else as well? At the end of the day, the Reapers, Dementors, Lethifolds and Inferi were all made by Death. 

So, wouldn't they land in hot water because of Death? 

The Reaper knew that there was no point in stewing over it now. The best thing to do would be to go and inform Death. 

He rushed to Death's chamber - huffing and puffing. By the time, he was allowed in for an audience, his Black robes that we're the physical manifestation of mortal's dying wishes had almost slipped off his frame. 

When the Reaper crossed the threshold into Death's office, he felt a foreboding chill run down his spine. 

He really didn't want to inform his boss that their superior might be onto them, but it was just his bad luck that he couldn't let himself and others are pulled down because of Death's mistake. 

When Death looked at it from two black, deep sunken holes, the Reaper tried to gather the remains of his rapidly dwindling hope and reported, "Someone must have linked themselves to Master's mortal body a few months ago and talked to another mortal. Master seems to have realised it." 

At Death's blank stare, the Reaper felt that maybe Death didn't understand the gravity of things, so he exaggerated a bit, "Master seems to be angry about it and I peeked into his thoughts. He doesn't seem happy and is a little miffed." 

Now, 'miffed' wasn't a word that should inspire fear or apprehension in others but see, the thing is that when Death was miffed, he created Dementors. 

So, one can easily imagine that when Death's very own one and only Master was miffed, what havoc the said person could rain down on everyone. 

Death went almost readily still and silent - pun intended, at those words. 

"You better not be telling me that someone from this realm tried to connect to the Master's mortal body, failed spectacularly and now, Master is on the prowl for the offender." Death tried to probe and hope that he had lost his hearing for a few seconds back there and it was just wind whistling past his ears. 

However, Death lived and died to disappoint. The only answer to his question (read pleading) was the silent shuffling of the Reaper's feet and the fumbling of his fingers. 

Death tried to take a calming breath - which wasn't really necessary since be was quasi-dead anyway, but it didn't seem to help matters. 

Then, he tried to count to a hundred to calm his rising dread. 

When that also proved to be ineffective, he tried to counts backwards from one thousand...

1000

999

998

....

Just as he was nearing 394, Death finally lost his composter and sent a pulse of his magic around the office and a visible for of Death's Magic could be seen curling around the edges of the room. 

Everywhere it touched could be seen corroding and withering in less than a span of a second and the Reaper shuffled out of the office and then tried to peak his head inside from the corner of the office door. 

When Death called him back inside, the Reaper didn't dare move a single step inside. 

Ai ai.

It wasn't a fool. 

Though the Reaper was the harbinger of bad news, it wanted to cower and save his own hide at this point. 

He simply pointed to the viewing room where he always kept watch over Master and rushed back to the room. 

Meanwhile, Death lowered at the Reaper's running, cowardly back. 

Humph! 

He wanted to teach the Reaper a lesson in the same way mortal parents taught their recalcitrant children. But for now, he had bigger troubles than his minions not listening to him. 

For the first time in nearly three centuries and a half centuries, the residents of The Land Of The Dead felt the familiar all-encompassing presence of Death surround the realm. 

Generally, Death was easy-going and didn't bother about most things. However, when push came to shove, Death was the end-all, be-all of everything so when it got angry, the rage could be felt throughout the realm it ruled. 

Death's minions felt dread rising in their non-existent hearts and knew that it must be a major event for something to make Death lose its cool and everyone feared for their existence. 

Nobody knew the reason, but most Reapers, Lethifolds, Dementors, Inferi, Boggarts, Demiguises, Thestrals and a whole legion of Death's own creations were called back all at once. 

Afterwards, each of them was subjected to a thorough investigation of their consciousness by Death, which in turn, left them almost at the doors of Death figuratively as well as metaphorically. 

Normally, the minions could joke around for centuries on end and spread terror and fear all around all the mortal planes of existence but when they were put under Death's terrifying gaze, they felt inadequate and intimidated. 

Death didn't yell nor did he become violent with them, but perhaps that would have been preferable to the cold fury colouring his tone and the disapproval radiating from his actions. 

After they were searched through, Death would send them away but nobody was allowed to leave The Land Of The Dead until Death gave its order. 

So, everyone was walking on egg-shells in the following week and worrying about what Death would do next if he didn't find whatever he was trying to. 

However, what none of them knew was that Death was panicking the more he searched and failed to find who had tried to establish a soul-link with the Master of Death. 

He was almost on the verge of losing all hope. 

He had already sent Master to The Land Of The Living without informing him about the duties and rewards that came along with him joining the three Hallows and now, to have someone try and almost succeed in forming a link with Master was more than even his own hardened, stoic heart could handle. 

If he couldn't find the culprit, wouldn't he become the pitiful fish on the chopping block? 

Master would surely think that it was him that was trying to play truant behind his back.