Another tryst!

"Hello ROB! It is a pleasure to meet you again." I said evenly, as I didn't feel anything other than serenity wash over me.

"You look like you have been through a lot. Not like when we met the first time. You were almost naive and innocent. Now you seem like a wise man." He smiled kindly.

"I did learn a lot. But I must ask, do I always have to die, to come here?" I was curious.

He chuckled. "You could've called. I would then simply bring you here." ROB evenly replied waiting for my reaction.

"Huhh. I could've come without dying?" I honestly forgot, I could call him. It seems, good memory and perfect recall doesn't mean, I wouldn't miss out on details.

"Yes. You could. Though it was better to have lived like you did. Most candidates like you, end up rushing through each of their worlds, forgetting they have an infinite time to spend in all the infinite worlds there are. I commend your actions in this world, though. Quite heroic too. I would have assumed a more morally ambiguous life, instead of the almost ascetic life you led in the later part."

I smiled. "Fate warned me about her intention to oppose me, if I did otherwise."

He laughed at me. "Son, Fate can do nothing to men like you. She can at most prepare people and circumstances to provide obstacles, but you are not tied by fate, destiny or their schemes. You are a Planeswalker, you existence a dilemma of the natural order and your mere presence is in defiance of fate. Because you are an uncertainty, a ripple in Fate's design. And you have nothing to fear from the shackles of fate."

I looked at him deeply. "So there are no strings on me?"

He chuckled. "None whatsoever. As a Planeswalker, you are free to make whatever choices you do, without fear of retribution. We higher beings simply care about the continued existence of reality, and those instances of the worlds, where the "bad ends" occur, we send someone like you to attempt to put things in order. But we are in no way obligated or compelled to ensure things go the right way."

I thought about it. "And what bad end was the world I was in, going to progress towards?"

He showed me with a swipe of his hand, as a translucent screen appeared between the two of us.

"Your world had a few lynchpins, where the prophecy was made at a wrong time. Severus Snape was one of the lynchpins there, as he had met with Lily, the day before Sybil Trelawney would Interview at Hogshead Inn. Because he was rebuffed and angry at her, he waited to spy on Dumbledore and heard the prophecy as in cannon."

He then showed the scene, where the slimy git met with Tom the Noseless, "But as opposed to cannon, after he conveyed the prophecy he realised that it could be about the child of Lily, and instead of begging with Tom to spare her, he chose to inform Tom of the possible candidate. Severus never went to Dumbledore for help, and as he wasn't begged to spare Lily, he simply killed her normally."

I looked confused, and ROB saw that. "In cannon, Tom asked Lily to step aside so he may grant her son the quick and painless death, so that she could be given to Snape, like he had begged for. He asked Lily thrice, and thrice did she refuse. When he then killed Lily, he had broken the sacred old law of magic, and he had betrayed the trust of his follower who earnestly asked for one thing, the one thing which he didn't grant, and went back on his words. The old laws were invoked, and Harry was given the protection of a mother's sacrifice, as she refused to step aside. And that was the ancient law, which created a magical shield which deflected the Killing Curse Tom cast on Harry."

That was mind blowing! "So in my world, Snape never realises the error of his ways, doens't go back to Dumbledore to ask him to save Lily, instead sides with Tom, and results in the fulfilment of the prophecy, but with it siding with Tom."

He nods. "Eventually. There was still Neville Longbottom in play, and unlike in cannon, Tom went to the Longbottom House himself, instead of sending Bellatrix. Doing that, he also marked Neville as his equal, and fulfilled part of the prophecy, and by being a smart Dark Lord, he finished all of the family, while making the body of dead Neville Longbottom, as his Horcrux."

Seeing my gasp, he nodded, "And with that, your world was heading towards a significantly dark ending, which you inevitably prevented, and Fate realised that, so they were forced to bless you, for your actions. They duped you into being good, and morally sound, but it wasn't too debilitating, was it?"

I thought about it. "It wasn't so bad, to have to behave good, but now that I know, I would make sure to at some point make the Fate pay for their fib."

He laughed. "I can't wait to see that happen. But I believe we must now discuss, what you plan to do now. You need to decide your next world and you have a lot of options to choose from."