Ch. 2 - Remembering the Past

MC' POV

"I am...Death"

This...This man, he is dead, now I understand why his power felt as I had known it, wielded it all my life, I sneaked the halls of Hogwarts with one of his artefacts deeply infused with his essence, the cloak of invisibility.

Feeling that I have been staring at him for too long I said the first thing that came to my mind,

"Umm...Nice to meet you Mr. Death.", I can hear Luna giggling behind me, and his deadpan stare makes me feel foolish all the more.

Death suddenly smiled as if he is aware of some inside joke, and he laughed and said "Thank you, Mr Potter, I generally don't receive such a nice and warm welcome from my guests, they tend to be...slightly overwhelmed with hysteria when they see me."

'I can guess why anybody would be, death is a truth no one wants to face after all' I thought to myself.

"Precisely that Mr Potter, yet here you are and you are not afraid of me," He said.

'Urgh!! He is bypassing my mind barriers as if they are wet paper' I say to myself when suddenly I heard his voice in my head 'Because you are in my domain Mr Potter, and even if you weren't, do you truly think anything hidden from death?'

I was about to retort but he turned to address Luna, "Luna my dear child, the time is running out! Please wrap up your talks with Mr. Potter, after all, I too have much to talk to him and you need rest dear child" He said smiling at my wife as if a father talks to his daughter.

" It sure will be an interesting conversation." She said to him with a knowing smile of her own. "Harry, I don't have much time left but I want to say to you I love you. Please don't hold on to me and make your new life miserable. Cherish our memories, but forge new ones. Live. Love. And maybe one day we'll meet again. You are much more than Harry Potter, you'll soon realize, but always remember your loved ones want you to live a happy life ahead, to forget the night and welcome the new dawn..an-" she was unable to finish as she turned to golden sand particles and floated upwards towards, maybe where my family waits for me. I couldn't even say anything to her...

"I am sorry Mr. Potter, would that I could, but even I am bound by certain laws" Death said, his tone something of a regret and sympathy. "Rest assured, Luna is dear to me for reasons I could not tell you, but be sure that she is happy to have met you one last time and now is with the rest of the family and loved ones of you both"

"T-Thank you, thank you for telling me. I am happy that she is among family and will be cared for" I said, expressing my thankfulness for allowing me to meet my Luna and his assurance that she is with family.

"As I said, she is very dear to me, something shall we say as a grandaughter is to a grandfather," He said with a smirk and winked at me.

It didn't take me even a second to understand what he is implying. I was shocked speechless, but soon composed myself and I knew that now that only we two are left some serious talks are going to happen.

"Nevertheless, thank you again. But I want to know why I was not allowed to move on to the other world. You know I don't your immortality which comes with hallows and as long as I am in my original world I cannot get rid of them, and hence cannot get rid myself of immortality." I said, explaining my actions as if I were now standing in front of a judge and executioner rather than the jovial but elegant fellow he appears to be.

"Well, believe me, Mr. Potter it's not like I wanted to hold you onto this world, but I am not the only entity who has a vested interest in you. Although I have more stake on you given your past life and this one experience, alas, your destiny was already written long before you even were born in your previous life." He said and I was shocked again that death has been directly involved in not just this one but my previous life as well..and not just that other deities were also taking part in forging? manipulating? my life.

I just uttered one word, "What!?"

"Tell me Mr. Potter what do you know of the Old Gods?"

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"Tell me Mr. Potter, what do you know of the old Gods?"

"!?"

"Old Gods? As in Egyptian, Hindu or Shinto pantheon gods?" I asked because I simply did not want this to go where his question could or is being implicated to lead.

'I agree that there could be infinite worlds, but a world created or coming into existence just because a mortal author imagined and wrote a series of books on it, is impossible! But, is it not impossible to fly on a broom, perform magic with wands etc for muggles?' I thought to myself.

My hopes came crashing down with his answer, "No Mr. Potter, I mean the Old Gods of Air, Water, Fire, Land, Sky, Forest and wilderness, rivers and oceans. Mr Potter, I am speaking about the Old Gods of the world as you know as A Song of Ice and Fire, or Game of Thrones if you are more inclined towards the show version."

"They are real?!" I was shocked to know that indeed they are real and not only that they are in existence much earlier than even my world has been.

"These Old Gods are manifested remnants of the primordial being who is the one who creates and destroys multiverse in a simple exercise as breathing in and out, to him we are all and yes including me mere blip of a fraction of fraction of nanosecond, but for beings like is its aeons upon aeons and yet infinite, whereas humans cannot even calculate it in numerical terms, some came close, very close, to calculating accurate age of their native universe, but then I do not know how they went off tangent to that stupid 13.8 billion years term" He is rambling now.

" Erhm, anyway, pardon me, I went off...but getting back to the point I will tell you more about them and why they need your help in soon, but before that you Mr Potter need to know about yourself"

"Huh? What are you talking about, Luna also said something regarding this...what exactly is going on?" I asked getting frustrated about things happening with me now, I just wanted a peaceful exit from immortality and now I getting to know what gods wanna play quidditch with me, me being the quaffle.😑😑

"The thing is Mr...Harry, that you are someone else, rather than explaining and wasting precious time, let me unlock your soul memories," Death said and touched my head once and then jabbed his pointer finger over where my heart is and twisted his finger as if turning a key and suddenly I felt rush of memories being bombarded in my head.

I saw my parents sacrifice their lives to save me and their village from a super giant nine-tailed fox their only gift to me was the family's secret techniques and the name which my parents gave me Aiden Uzumaki-Namikaze, I saw my childhood which was many times worse than what I suffered at the hands of Dursleys, I also saw myself overcoming the problems life threw at me and understanding that I was being manipulated by the kind old man who is also the leader of the village...again..old man..kind persona facade...manipulation...sigh.

I saw myself making friends and rivals, being..surprise surprise.. betrayed by said friends and rivals, taking my vengeance from them all, moving away to distant lands making friends with the giant fox who later I learnt has a name Kurama and summons of my mother's clan the Mythical dire wolf clan, (not your typical dire wolves of GOT but Boss summon size wolves). I saw myself fighting 2 wars, and later dying at the hands of the enemy but succeeding in killing him too.

My head was throbbing by the time I assimilated the memories of my past life, it felt like my brain was splitting apart.

I thought that to be it, but no sooner I saw those memories than another rushed to me, this one much more vague than the previous one, I saw myself living a simple life, getting good grades, joining the police force, getting promotions and one day on an encounter mission against drug gang I was 6 bullets in lung and then I knew no more.

"Ahhh! My head!" I screamed while those memories were being assimilated. Once it was done, the pain went away as if it never was in the first place.

"That was something, I apologize for the pain but those were effects of hardships and dark memories, and your life hasn't been sunshine and rainbows much, both live at that" Death said.

"Tell me about it" I deadpanned, "So, now that I have got hold of my real identity and I don't consider that muggle life as my real one, what's next?" I asked.

"Now, I will explain the situation more in detail about why we brought you here, and once all goes well, which means you WILL accept the responsibility, we set some ground rules and this and that and voila, you are on your way to living a life many mortals pray for, though I do not know why," He said.

Suddenly death became all serious and foreboding self and said in a deep powerful voice, "Alright Harry, when I call them listen to them carefully, their knowledge and insight will be useful to you in your coming days, now get ready", and suddenly the entire hallway was engulfed in bright light and then I saw a giant white tree spout from the floor reaching height seemingly with no stopping at the trunk a face appeared, of a weathered and old man with deep long moustaches and beard and eyes open yet leaking red sap appearing as if its crying tears of blood.

"GREETINGS YOUNG ONE, WE HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING YOUR LIFE SINCE YOU WERE BORN IN YOUR PAST LIFE AS AIDEN, WE ARE GLAD THAT YOU HAVE ACCEPTED TO ASSIST US IN THIS ENDEAVOUR, KNOW THAT YOUR HELP IS APPRECIATED AND WILL BE REWARDED" the voice came from the tree and reverberated throughout the hall and yet the power resonating from it was unlike anything I felt before, much much more severe than even death's.

I instantly knew these are the gods you don't mess with for the consequences will be worse than dire. I instantly knelt as the common prayer method I saw in my life as Aiden and bowed with folded hands to the Old Gods and decided to go with what fate or rather they have decided for me.

"Old Gods, I am honoured to be graced by your presence, and to be chosen by you for whatever it is you could need of me."

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