Chapter 3. Protection

"A way to be free? Is something like that really possible?" Harry asked while thinking about his title of the Boy-Who-Lived.

"Yes. A way to be free. I will give you something I saw in another world that will support you through your life and will make you stronger so no one can challenge you and your family in the future. You can't leave everything behind and flee since you are still locked into fate's plan to eliminate certain people, but how you eliminate them is completely up for you to choose. You can completely overpower and crush them, and fate would be okay with it. If you really wanted to, you could even leave for years and just kill them a millennium later. Fate is prickle like many say, and nobody is fully bound by it, but if you have a task, you have to do it, but when it is over, there will be no further influence of fate onto you. That is one of the advantages fate gives the people who do an important task for itself." The voice said to Harry calmly.

"So you will give me the chance to be free? Where is the catch? And who are you in the first place?" asked Harry, suppressing his inner Gryffindor to accept instantly. 'There is no way something like this would come without cost.'

"Hmm. Good questions. Have you read the fairy tale 'The Tale of the Three Brothers'? Why do I even ask? I know you didn't, and the story itself is somehow false, so now I will tell you something about the past of these three brothers and myself." said the mysterious voice now with a bit of emotion in his voice.

"It shames me greatly, but even beings like me can fall to their own arrogance. In the past, when I walked around the plane in this world, I met three brothers who challenged me to a bet. Maybe it was because I drank too much that day, but I accepted the bet. The bet itself was easy. I gave all three of them an item from myself, and with that, they said they could escape Death. The first and eldest Brother wanted the strongest wand so he could defend himself from anything that would come at him. He was the first to lose and die under my hands since who could be stronger than me, Death itself? He was too arrogant for his own good. The second brother asked for a stone to contact the dead. He thought if he contacted the dead, they could tell him where I was located, and he could flee instantly. If you ask me, he was the most stupid of the three. Why would the dead even know where I am? Anyway, he also died not long after the bet. Now to the last and youngest of the three Brothers. He asked for an invisible Cloak that could hide him from everything. He lived under this cloak all his life, and I could never find him. How could he get children with that cloak on him 24/7? Don't ask me. I don't even know myself. Anyway, losing the bet, the last Brother wanted all three relics I gifted bound to his family and the protection of me, Death itself. I fulfilled my promise until this day. That is also the reason you lived through that Night. You are the only real descendant that still lives to this day. The protection of me transfers to the youngest child in every generation. Even now, you can't die until you have your first child." The voice said, finishing the story.

"So you are Death?" Harry asked, a bit dumbfounded after hearing such a stupid story.

"Yes."

"And what do you want from me for this power you said? And why would I accept since, with your protection, I seemingly can't die?" Harry asked, a bit skeptical.

"Why should you accept even though you can't die? That is easy to answer. I already saw your future life, and it won't be very good without the thing I want to give you. Of course, you won't die, but you marry with potioned love, and the children you will have are not even all yours. Knowing your dearest dream for family, I know something like that will destroy you, so I am sure there is no problem for you agreeing to the deal." Death said.

Hearing something like that, Harry thought that he didn't even have a choice. He didn't think Death would lie to him. With the life he lived until now, he could already see that the possibility Death talked about would probably be accurate. 

Instead of further thinking, he asked Death.

"Okay. So what do you want for the power you offer me?"

"First. I want all three of my relics given back to me. With your permission, I can take them all, even if you don't own them at the moment. Secondly, I want the protection to cease to exist. I won't lie to you and will tell you that the thing you will get from me in exchange for the protection will be many times better. Even your future family will benefit from it more than this protection could ever."

He said while Harry asked him a question, interrupting his speech.

"So why would you give me something like that in trade for your protection?" Harry asked with some worry in his voice.

"That is easy to answer. The power to protect I could give it easily, but by the wording of the third brother, I not only have to protect his descendants, but I have to be something like a bodyguard and have to watch over them 24/7. It's annoying, so I developed something to trade with one of his descendants. I can only come out of that deal with offering something greater, and if you really go into substance, I really took a liking to that third brother. He still sometimes comes over to talk to me. He even agreed that I could make that deal with you."

"Alright, I will give you some time and come back later to hear your answer, so until then." Death said. He still wanted to say something before Harry interrupted him again.

"Wait. Wait. I accept." Harry said without thinking about it anymore. Did he even have to think about it? The future Death described to him wasn't that nice.

He knew it would cancel the protection for his descendants, but maybe he could gain things that would benefit them more when he understood Death, right? In the first place, Harry wanted to think a little more about himself and not only about others.

"So what exactly do I get?" Harry asked with some expectation.

"A System." followed the simple answer from Death.

"A What?" Harry asked, confused.