Death at Hogwarts: The Next Generation

Chapter Five

I arrived at the Ministry with Death. We made sure not to go anywhere near Avery's body, where it lay by the pedestal. His spirit still lingered in the body, waiting for the scythe to cut it free from it's mortal vessel.

"The problem here is, if you swing your scythe, then the air being displaced might touch the egg." I said, trying to work a way we could do this.

I had an idea. Bending down, I grabbed Avery's body by the foot and lifted, using my magic to make his body levitate closer to us. The moment he was close enough, Death swung his scythe, severing Avery's soul from his body. Suddenly, my magic failed. Confused, I had to lug the corpse back over to where it had originally fallen.

"Be careful."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I said, making sure to steer clear of the egg, which I noticed had several cracks in. "Hey, is this thing supposed to be this cracked?"

"Dean, get away!"

I backed away, doing as he said, when I noticed the egg wobble twice.

"It's going to hatch, isn't it?"

"It seems that way," Death agreed. "But we should not hatch it before it is time."

 I nodded in agreement, then suddenly spotted something under Avery's corpse. Reaching down to pick it up, Avery's body suddenly groaned and I yelped in surprise, shocked that that stage of Rigor Mortis had been reached already. Whatever was in that egg must never be hatched! As I thought that, I found myself falling atop the corpse. The resulting thud caused the pedestal the egg was on to wobble violently.

"No, no, no, no, no!" I cried as the egg began to fall.

It hit the floor with a thud.

"Oh. . .bollocks." I said as numerous cracks appeared.

"Dean, get away from -!"

Death's words were cut off as the egg hatched and a blinding light filled the room. I felt as though my soul were being pushed and pulled, torn from my body. Suddenly, I felt Death's presence with me.

"What's going on?" I thought.

"The egg hatched. We have become one once more, but we are separate at the same time."

How was this possible? Just what the hell was in that egg?! I didn't have long to find out. When te light finally cleared, I was laid on the floor by the egg, which was split into four pieces. I blearily stood up and looked at it, then gasped in shock. No. It couldn't be! How could it have got there?!

There was no mistaking it. Inside that egg was an hourglass. An hourglass with my name on it.

Just then, as we watched, the hourglass cracked, and a shockwave seemed to blast out from the egg, passing through us. We gasped as we both felt pain, something that ordinarily would be impossible, but then again, whatever this egg was could tamper with Life and Death, so there was no telling what had just happened.

"We have to find Harry, warn him against anyone else entering the Department of Mysteries! It needs to be shut down, now!"

As I relayed this message to Death, I was already taking myself away to find Harry, who was sat in his office, looking tired as he sorted through a bunch of papers.

 "Dean?" he said, looking up as I appeared. "What are you doing. . . here?"

I frowned at him. He sounded completely exhausted.

"Harry, maybe you should take a break, you look beat."

"Yeah. . maybe. . I. . ."

Before he could finish his sentence, he slumped forward and collapsed onto the floor.

"Harry!" I darted forward and checked his pulse, knowing he was alive, but checking to be sure. No doubt about it. He'd collapsed into a deep sleep. However, something about the sleep bothered me, and I couldn't work out what it was.

"Kingsley." I whispered, summoning him to me, using a power I had not used in nearly twenty years.

He appeared before me, looking confused.

"What the -? How did I -?"

"Me," I said simply. "Kingsley, this is important, so listen up."

I filled him in on everything about the egg, and how it had killed Avery Strode. I was about to continue when he stopped me.

"There's no one by the name of Avery Strode here in the Ministry."

"What? Yes there is."

"No, there isn't. I just now finished going over all the employee records for the Ministry of Magic, and there's no one called Avery Strode."

Frowning, I whisked us both off to the room where the egg was - or where it had been. Both it and my hourglass were gone. Avery's body still lay there however.

Kinglsey gasped aloud.

"This isn't possible!"

"Yes it is. He's dead, look. See? See all that blood? He's not coming back from that." I pointed out.

"No, I mean. . ." he took a breath, as though preparing himself. "Years ago, before the Battle of Hogwarts, when Voldemort was still in power, there was a man called Avery Strode working here, as an Unspeakable. He was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange."

"I thought there was something a little off about him." Death mused.

"How is any of this even possible?!" I demanded.

"That egg was pushed here as a tool. What lay inside was not really your hourglass, it is simply what you saw. The egg shows something different for everyone. Think of it as a reverse Mirror of Erised. I will tell you something else, too. Whatever that egg has done, it has begun reversing the most potent deaths of the past twenty years."

"Gods. . .you mean. . .?"

"Yes. Tom Riddle and Bellatrix Lestrange will, at some point, be restored to life, and at full strength."

"We have to do something."

"There is naught we can do for now, except wait."

"I hate waiting!"

"I know."

 "Dean, what's going on?" Kingsley asked, looking at me. I finished telling him about the egg, and then what Death had just told me. He went pale.

"That. . .if that gets out that he's back. . ."

I nodded gravely.

"Do not make the mistakes Cornelius made, Kinglsey. When he returns, you must warn everyone. I'm going to be warning Draco Malfoy as it is."

He nodded gravely, and I took myself off to Hogwarts, determined to do all I could to ensure that this time around, there were no bloody Horcruxes. This time, Tom Riddle's soul would be mine. He would not destroy everything I had worked so hard to create, and Gods help him if he came anywhere near Luna or my children!