The Office

This is a record of the collection of events to preserve the happenings of the life of a poor soul, after he died.

You see, people who make similar records often tend to exaggerate their deaths. They tell tales of hard-fought battles, self-sacrifice, and heroic perseverance. Soul #694201969 died, aged 18, on the department store counter, after he shut his eye for a short nap. This too, he had to come to terms with, due to his denial over his death. Then came the shock, and finally acceptance, and surprisingly contentment. Despite not having a very ambitious or out-of-the-norm kind of life, he was happy. He died, Happy. Or at least as close to happiness one can get.

Now came the interesting part. After his death had been confirmed to him by his inner conscience, He found himself in a rather bland office building. You could have easily mistaken it for your local DMV office. There was a short queue, consisting of a veritable sea of living beings, that were seemingly unconcerned by the presence of other life forms. There were Humans, Humanoids, entirely non-humanoid beings, some even seemed to have been lifted straight out of Star-Wars (That threw him off for a bit because he thought, he'd ended up at the local comic con). Interestingly, he could understand what everyone around him was speaking about, and he was pretty sure, he had never learned any language other than English, Hindi, and a little bit of French, to appear suave to the ladies.

There were sixteen people ahead of him when he joined the line. He figured it was important because the door to the exit was not visible anymore and there was no other waiting area. When he checked for the number of people behind him, however, he found next to a thousand in waiting. He must have been lucky for the positioning in the queue. He wouldn't have wanted to be the bloke at the end of the queue.

It took all of 25 minutes, Soul #694201969 was not really sure time existed linearly in this place, for him to get his turn at the counter. Existential crisis aside, it was time to see for soul #694201969, what this place is really about.

At the counter, there was a rather plain-faced old man. He had a round face, with black eyes, hidden behind round spectacles.

"Hello, as it is your first time, with the Afterlife Judgement Office, let me guide you through the process of figuring out where your soul will reside up till the next cycle of your world's renewal. In your right hand, you will find a color-coded card, to match the overall judgment that has been granted to you. If the color is red, please step through the Hell door to your left. If the color is Green, please step through the Heaven door, to your right. Have a great day."

That was honestly, one of the most redundant sorting processes, possible ever. The poor soul, briefly wondered what would happen if he crossed the Heaven door with a red card. As soon as he had thought that, a cold shiver went up to his spine, and he felt like he was being suffocated by dark red black hands, but the sensation left as soon as it appeared.

The soul looked down at his right hand and found a neat little card in his hand, which he was damn sure wasn't there a couple of seconds ago, with the bold Headline Judgement Card on it, with a stamp in Yellow, of the words Balance. The soul, was confused, as he hadn't been told what to do with this kind of card. He looked up at the counter, the old man was still there, staring blankly at him, as if he was just going through the motions with all this.

"Uhm, excuse me. I have a Yellow Stamped card, I don't know what I am supposed to do, with this card. Please help me out." As soon as the formless soul, uttered the words, he could swear the old man's eyes marginally widened before reassuming the blank plain face.

"Oh, I see. In that case, please step through the Yellow door, straight down the corridor to my right. The Balance Life Administration will help you further. Next!"

That was a little rude, the soul had to admit. But then the clerk probably gets millions of similar cases like him every day, so it's not that big of a deal, he mused.

The soul traversed down the white corridor that led to the yellow marked door labeled 'Balance Life Administration". Opening the door, what greeted him was an empty room, with a Lady at the counter looking half asleep, half focused on a video playing on the screen to his left. She looked at the new comer, and then visibly brightened "Oooh! A client, how nice! Please show me your Balance Judgment Card, I will guide you through the next process of Administration."

The soul did as he was requested and handed her his card. She glanced at the card and her face broke into a very wide smile. "Thank You, now, this card indicates that you have lived a very unremarkable life. Your life was worthless and had no purpose. You haven't done enough in your life to be granted entry into heaven or hell, hence you are faced with three options. You can either select rebirth into your world, without your memories, this will give you a fair chance of living a somewhat more remarkable life. You could take up an office here in the Judgement department for the next thousand millennia, or you can transmigrate into a different part of the multiverse, based on the multiverse wheel that is right behind me. So, what will it be?" She informed her client cheerily.

That was a truckload and a half of reality checks, that were dumped on the poor soul. Depressing, really. But he was dead, and apparently, he had a chance to work on improving his case. He didn't really want to leave his life to fate, as he could quite easily end up in hell, neither did he want to end up like the old man outside, or this lady here, who he was assuming selected the second option after living lives like his. So, really there was only one option. At this point, he was really starting to wonder why he was being so gung-ho and upfront about all of this. But again, as soon as the thought came to him, it vanished.

"I'll take transmigration, please. Though, I'd like to know what my situation will be when I transmigrate and where I will end up." The soul's words had a very earth-shattering effect on her. Her cheery persona instantly froze and she became quite sullen, the soul was honestly a little ashamed of himself and was seriously contemplating changing his choice, but he didn't. The soul didn't know, and she's already made her choice, He did not want to end up like either of these workers here.

"Oh, I See. In that case, let me spin the Wheel of Universe, then the Wheel of Persona, and the Wheel of Time. If you're lucky, we may get to spin the wheel of Powers too." Saying that she spun around and headed towards the giant multi-colored wheel labeled, Universe. On it, were a series of Titles like "My Hero Academia"; "Marvel Cinematic Universe"; "Detective Comics Extended Universe"; "Boku no Pico" and so on, up to maybe a hundred more names. How the wheel was able to fit everything and remain legible, he did not know.

That last one, had the soul's hair on edge, for some reason. Others, he thought, he could possibly handle.

She spun the wheel quite aggressively, he noticed. The wheel gave off an eerie rainbow effect, and he could swear, he saw it glow for just a second, and then it reluctantly came to a halt. The label on the sector of the wheel it landed on, set his nerves on for a moment. "The Magical World of Harry Potter crossed"

"Aren't you a lucky one? A crossover, as your universe. Well, what can I do? I'll spin the wheel again to see what Universe this catastrophe is getting crossed with." She had become quite snarky now, but now, the soul didn't mind, Harry Potter is already a dangerous world, and he knew his future was already looking bleak. He didn't think that he could get a worse choice as a crossover than this. Dammit, he jinxed himself didn't he?

As soon as she spun the wheel, and yes, he was damn sure it was glowing rainbow again, it spun rapidly and it reluctantly came to a halt on the shiny silver plaque with "Marvel Universe" etched on it. And the soul knew, he was fucked. He should not have jinxed himself.

People generally assume, that Harry Potter is a children's story about a reluctant boy hero, and his wonderful little adventures, will have a relatively tame social environment when compared to Universes like Marvel, or Star Wars. They are correct, to a degree. But keep in mind, we are talking about a universe where literal dragons, lethifolds, undead soul-sucking dementors, and of course the magical humans, capable of bewitching the minds on a whim, exist. It does necessitate a certain level of paranoia to survive. No one likes having their thoughts read or becoming a puppet to someone else's hormones. It might have just been the soul's paranoia talking, though. Interesting, he noted, whatever entity kept him calm till now was letting him have this moment of emotional overload. To a degree.

And now, he was being sent to a weird crossover between Harry Potter and Marvel. He honestly thought he should reconsider being admitted to the administration here. If only it wasn't for a thousand millennia, and he probably would have. He didn't even know what he was supposed to do with his life, admittedly he didn't know in the previous one either, to be honest, but with magic, monsters, spies, and gods in the fray, and his necessity to somehow make his life worthwhile, so that he could be granted heaven after he died again, whenever it was that he'd die, he knew soon he would have to figure it out.

"Sir, you will be transmigrated to "The Magical World of Harry Potter crossed with The Marvel Universe". Oh she, was still here, wasn't she? She's lost all sense of cheeriness or snarkiness, and distinctive character traits, she too had become a person who now seems to be going through the motions. 'At least', he breathed a sigh of relief, 'I made the right call. I think.'

"I will spin the Wheel of Persona for you Sir, please wait a moment." He was pretty sure, that wheel was blank a second ago. He was fairly certain; these wheels and doors are magically updating. The wheel now contained a set of character names, that belonged to famous Harry Potter characters and some Marvel Comics characters.

It was interesting to note, that it included characters like Morgana Le Fay, Merlin Emrys, Gellert Grindelwald, and Tom Riddle as well. Why the soul instantly focused on the names of these characters out of the hundreds in the wheel, he did not know, maybe they are prominent and stand out or something else is going on.

Anyways, this wheel also spun, and once again, he was pretty sure, it glowed for a second there. It reluctantly came to a halt on the slot with the name "Nathan Alferian Frye" etched on it, in silver.

The moment the wheel stopped spinning, he was granted a massive headache, along with information regarding the person's physical features, and background.

[Nathan Alferian Frye –

Born 18th June, 1977

Caucasian Skin, Sky-Blue Eyes, Dark-Brown Hair, Angular Jawline, potential to reach a maximum height of 6'2".

Is an orphaned half-blood, whose father worked in the Ministry of magic, in the department of International Magical Affairs, and mother was a muggle-born witch, with a rich muggle background.

His Grandfather Alferian Frye, was a retired World War 2 field engineer, while his Grandmother Maria Frye was a retired nurse.

His guardian till the age of eighteen will be his, Old Home's caretaker, Mrs. Jolene Shephard. A widow who's raised Nathan since the age of two, after his Grandparents died, bequeathing all family assets and money onto Nathan. She's a kind-hearted old lady, who likes to be prim, proper and well-mannered and has the well-being of Nathan in mind.]

The soul nursed his formless head momentarily as the information was somehow transferred into it, despite knowing that he'd be given information regarding the person he would be from here on, he was not prepared for someone to basically download the character identity in his head.

"Please wait while I spin the Wheel of Powers for you, as the Wheel of Time has been made obsolete with the character birth specification that came with your character description, you will be integrated into your mortal shell, at the age of six." Now the lady had become entirely monotonous and robotic. He honestly pitied her. All she'd done was make some very stupid choices, both before and after her death.

She once again proceeded to spin the corresponding wheel, which he was sure, wasn't there a moment ago. It had multiple slots that he was sure would make Harry Potter Universe quite the easy ride for me. Among the slots that I could identify, at first glance were "Captain America's Super Soldier Serum", "Powers of Spider-Man", "Kryptonian Physiology", "Saitama's limit break" and so on.

He honestly felt like a kid in a candy store, by just reading these obviously game-breaking power sets. But alas, his luck wasn't that good, the wheel reluctantly came to a halt on the Sector labeled "Natural Occlumency"

The soul was initially a little dejected, to be honest. But, on further scrutinization, he realized that he could make this work for him, if he played his cards correctly. Occlumency, according to most fanfics, that he'd read had the nice side effect of better memory retention. Although he had absolutely no idea, about how magic truly works, he'd not be left hanging in most other departments. He mused he'd have math and science down to aid him, should he need it. At least, he could rest assured mind readers in this amalgamation of a universe won't be able to gain anything from him, he consoled himself.

"Please prepare for departure to your destined Universe. We hope you have a pleasant and more fulfilling life ahead of you." Saying that the lady, who had approached him while he was lost in contemplation, pushed him into what looked like the Abyss.