A Hop Skip And A Jump Away

Interviews and tricky shadows

In hindsight it had been too easy. King Jareth had agreed to the revelation with the caveat that the goblin nation would defend themselves with extreme prejudice if they came under attack. They had absolutely no trouble contacting the two attendants that were assigned to Harry, nor had they any trouble getting to Buckingham Palace and the room set aside for the interview. The mixed looks at the three of them all gussied up flat out told them that there was something wrong. Harry took a deep breath and decided to use his Gryffindor courage to take the bull by the horns.

"Alright, who's cleared to know about the Statute of Secrecy and all it entails?" Harry asked, figuring he'd better find out who already knew what.

"It doesn't matter. All of them are in line for the throne and will have to be told," Queen Elizabeth dismissed the question as she made her way out of the center of the group consisting of Harry's new family.

"I just figured I'd find out who knows what so we can cover what's actually needed rather than going over redundant information before the interview you arranged, ma'am," Harry said politely. "The adoption and everything surrounding it is going to be a nightmare to explain even if they're fully up to date on the Statute."

"It won't hurt them to hear everything again and the youngest haven't been told anything. Why don't we start with your life's story and expand from there," the Queen suggested mischievously.

"There was one more person who asked to be here, do you mind if Harry calls him?" Severus asked politely.

"Is he a threat?" someone asked.

"That depends on how you classify the personification of Death," Harry answered with a harsh bitter bark of laughter that made most of them flinch. "Even if you said no I don't really have a choice in calling him or not. I think he just asked me to introduce him to be polite.... or they're playing a prank on me."

"Now, master that's hardly a nice thing to say," Death chided in obvious amusement as he faded out of the shadows. Tall, thin, pale skinned, dark brown hair, with near black eyes, and dressed in a dapper striped suit swinging an umbrella he looked like a stern business man. It was only when you looked him directly in the eye that you saw his power leaking out and you knew that he could disappear into complete normality without a trace.

Harry's face palm was the perfect tension break and had more than one of the children giggling at his response.

"He called you master...." a second voice pointed out hesitantly.

"I accidentally collected certain magical artifacts while trying to stay alive in the previous timeline and had the right bloodline to take on a special magical title," Harry informed them flatly, refusing to elaborate further.

"What he isn't telling you is that he had to die several times to earn the title and I had to choose to bring him back each time," Death told them with a dark chuckle. "Not an impossible task but hardly easy."

"Can we start 'rom the begin'ng?" a little voice asked seriously. "I want to know the w'ole story!"

"Certainly little one. Watch," Death said with a kind chuckle before making a gesture and conjuring enough chairs for everyone, much to the delight of the children. The adults mostly stood stock still in shock until the Queen gave a chuckle and made her way over to a seat, quickly joined by everyone else. The three chairs set in front of and facing the rest were obviously for Harry and his husbands. Death opted to stand behind Harry, his support for the small wizard clear.

"Start at the beginning," the Queen instructed. So Harry did, starting from his earliest memories and moving through his Hogwarts years until he got to where the old timeline split from their current one.